PhD (African Studies / Centre for African Studies / This study explored the implications of Act 12 of 2012 on the establishment of indigenous
languages within the ambit of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa’s Act 108 of 1996
on the use of English and Afrikaans Languages only in the Vhembe District criminal court
proceedings. The establishment of the Indigenous Language Courts for the purpose of using
indigenous languages, namely Tshivenda, Xitsonga and Sepedi as languages of court was the main
objective of this study. This study investigated (a) whether present legally-recognised methods on
the use of English and Afrikaans only in criminal court proceedings give effect to the right to a
fair trial and (b) what are the implications of the Use of Official Languages Act on the use of
English and Afrikaans only in the Vhembe District multilingual criminal courtrooms. This was
accomplished through qualitative methods of data collection and analysis, namely in-depth
personal interviews and textual analysis of the literature and case law review on the phenomenon
under investigation. The interviews were conducted with samples of seven categories of
participants, namely, the accused persons, the convicted persons, the court officials, court
interpreters, the DJ & COND Directors, the PanSALB and one University Centre for African
Languages i.e. UCT. Through both methods, it was revealed that the legally enforceable methods
that prefer the use of English and Afrikaans as languages of the courts and court records over the
accused’s indigenous language or their mother-tongue in the entire trial thereby negating their right
to a fair trial, are the provisions of the legislation and the Constitution and their application thereof,
as well as legal instructions and culture. It was further revealed that this Act implied the elimination
of the use of English and Afrikaans and creates opportunity to the accused’s right to use his or her
mother-tongue as one of the indigenous languages in the entire trial thereby affording the accused
the right to a fair trial. The study found that the two theories as designed and implemented
revealed problems on the ground and helped this research to conclude that these legally enforceable
methods created the feeling of unfair treatment amongst the users of the indigenous languages in
court. It suggested that the three identified indigenous languages be used as languages of court
and of court record.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:univen/oai:univendspace.univen.ac.za:11602/654 |
| Date | 23 September 2016 |
| Creators | Choshi, Madumetja Kate |
| Contributors | Molapo, R. R., Mollema, N. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (x, 290 leaves) |
| Rights | University of Venda |
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