Language barrier an issue in South Africa

May 2004

People migrating to cities from rural areas of South Africa are facing difficulties with employment and social service access due to language barriers, a Monash researcher has found.

Dr Ana Deumert, research director of Monash University's Language and Society Centre, spent two months last year surveying internal migration to Cape Town from other parts of South Africa.

The survey formed part of a larger research project, 'Global Markets, Human Mobility and Social Protection', led by Professor Chris Nyland from the Faculty of Business and Economics and funded by the Monash Institute for the Study of Global Movements.

Dr Deumert said that in post-apartheid South Africa, English had become the main language of upward mobility, political access and economic power but that Afrikaans still played an important role as many employers in the Western Cape were Afrikaans-speaking.

However, she said many of those interviewed were unable to communicate even basic information in English and their knowledge of Afrikaans was also low.

"Those who participated in the survey repeatedly commented that their inability to express themselves in English and Afrikaans prevented them not only from finding permanent or casual employment, but also from access to social services and government institutions," she said.

"Doctors in clinics and hospitals usually have little knowledge of Xhosa, the main language spoken by most of the internal migrants, and rely on the patients' knowledge of English and sometimes Afrikaans. As one respondent put it when asked about his experience in hospitals: 'Me understand doctors, doctors not understand me'."

Dr Deumert said many rural migrants only had minimal contact with English and typically settled in areas where other migrants from nearby villages had established themselves and where Xhosa remained the dominant language of everyday life.

"In many parts of South African society, English is a second language, but in many of the townships in Cape Town, English is very much a foreign language."

Dr Deumert said further quantitative and qualitative information on language distribution was urgently needed in South Africa, which is constitutionally committed to a multilingual language policy. There are nine official languages in South Africa.