07 Dec 2014

Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Phillip Makgalemele says government’s policy is that Setswana and English are the only two official languages used in the country.

Responding to a motion requesting government to introduce multi-lingual news broadcasting in all languages with developed orthographies, Mr Makgalemele said a key enabler for the implementation of such a motion, among other requirements, was the existence of developed orthographies for the multiple languages in which news would be broadcast.

“Although some work has been done to develop orthographies for the various local languages, the national policy on languages is still being developed to give guidance and direction for their official use,” he said.

He further noted that the motion seemed to be discriminatory as it referred to languages with a developed orthography thereby leaving out those whose orthographies have not been developed.

Also opposing the motion, Serowe South MP, Dr Pelonomi Venson Moitoi said orthographies for various languages had not been fully developed. 

She said Botswana was an inclusive republic, and that nobody should be left behind, otherwise only languages of groups that can afford orthographies will be recognised while smaller groups are forgotten.

She said at the time she was a minister responsible for communications, there was no orthography for other languages; it was difficulty in that the laws for broadcast required you to have orthography, keep records to do several things in broadcasting.  “We got stuck on the technicalities,” she said. 

In addition, she said she met various minority language groups such as Reteng to help other smaller groups develop their own orthography as well as to discuss how things could be done in broadcasting and in education.  ENDS