South African lawmakers lobbied to add Kiswahili as country’s official language

Kiswahili widely spoken in the Eastern African region, has received more recognition across the continent in recent years

Cape Town, South Africa | Xinhua | South Africa’s Parliament on Tuesday said its Joint Constitutional Review Committee, which makes recommendations about the amendment to the Constitution, has received a presentation on submissions to add Kiswahili and Khilovedu to the present 11 official languages in the country.

This came about two weeks after Africa’s leading university, University of Cape Town (UCT), announced that it will teach Kiswahili, or Swahili in English, as an elective language course from 2023 and as a major subject from 2028.

Mathole Motshekga, co-chairperson of Joint Constitutional Review Committee, during the presentation, said the domestication of Kiswahili in South Africa will facilitate cultural and socio-economic integration of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, which in 2019 adopted Swahili as the body’s 4th working language, and the continent as a whole.

Kiswahili, which is the national language of Kenya and Tanzania and is widely spoken in the Eastern African region, has received more recognition across the continent in recent years. Besides SADC, the 55-member African Union (AU) earlier this year adopted it as a working language, while the East African Community (EAC) adopted it as an official language in 2021.

Khilovedu is a language of South Africa’s ethnic group Lobedu, which has its own kingdom ruled by Rain Queen.

*****

Xinhua