This study represents an analysis of the use of foreign African interpreters in South African courtrooms in the context of the necessity of court interpreting as a vehicle through which accused persons can express themselves in defence of their rights, which may have been violated. As a background to the study, due consideration is given to the history of interpreting, followed by some theoretical perspectives of interpreting, where the differences between translation and interpreting are explained. The discussion of some of the theoretical issues of interpreting also focuses on the notion of equivalence, and the divergent views of scholars regarding this notion, which range from formal equivalence (a source-language oriented approach), through dynamic equivalence (in terms of which translation/interpreting must be in agreement with the form and cultural expectations of the receptor language community) to skopos theory (functional in approach and target text oriented). In discussing the role of the court interpreter, the role boundaries with regard to his/her professional relationship with other participants in the courtroom are highlighted. A related topic, namely that of quality in interpreting, is investigated in relation to quality control by professional associations in different countries, who act as regulatory authorities in this regard. A review of court interpreting in South Africa and selected countries in Africa and the EU, such as Nigeria, Benin, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique and Portugal reveals that efforts to develop court interpreting in some Africa and EU countries are either non-existent or at an incipient stage of development. While South Africa, compared to other countries in Africa, is making progress, she is far behind EU countries such as the UK, France and Spain –all of which possess accreditation systems, professional associations and registers of court interpreters. An analysis of the data collected on foreign African court interpreters shows that, although they work in the same courtrooms as their South African counterparts on a daily basis, they are treated differently in terms of employment procedures, training, remuneration, and such like. The study points out that some factors such as (a) the lack of adequate crosscultural awareness and (b) of a balanced proficiency in their language pair, as well as (c) and the existence of divergent dialects in those languages may pose a challenge to foreign African court interpreters in interpreting cross-border languages and in performing sight translations. The study further reveals that foreign African court interpreters are in serious breach of the professional code of conduct, as exemplified by instances of conflict of interest and partiality in their practices. As regards the management of court interpreters, the findings indicate a general laxity on the side of management, as a result of which there is a lack, inter alia, of an appropriate evaluation or monitoring strategy aimed at detecting such cases of conflict of interest and partiality.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:8363 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Usadolo, Sam Erevbenagie |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Arts |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Doctoral, DPhil |
| Format | 440 p, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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