On May 4 2023, the parliament voted for the amendment of Section 6 of the Constitution to add Sign Language as an official language. For the past three decades since democracy began, numerous social movements and activists have protested, lobbied, litigated and raised awareness about this systematic exclusion of people living with disabilities such as being deaf and/or hard of hearing.
Society and govenrment had dehumanised and reduced the mute and deaf to nothing more than welfare casesThe amendment to section 6 of the constitution includes South African Sign Language as an official language to promote the rights of people who are deaf and hard of hearing. Stock photo.On May 4 2023, the parliament voted for the amendment of Section 6 of the Constitution to add Sign Language as an official language.
In 2009, Westville Boys High School learner Kyle Springate took the minister of basic education to court demanding that Sign Language be recognised and provided for in his matric subjects. The court ruled in favour of the learner and this moment began a wave of activism for Sign Language to be made an official language.
The South African Schools Act had recognised Sign Language since 1996 but the absence of this requirement from the Constitution gave the basic education department options to either provide the service or disregard it, depending on their budgets and priorities. There was no definite and compulsory requirement in place with absolute legal obligation.
As a result, the government continued to treat Sign Language as a secondary matter that was placed in its welfare programmes. Welfare services such as pension benefits to military veterans, early childhood development facilities, disability-friendly infrastructure development and psychiatric health care services for mentally ill patients have all been disregarded services that this government has defunded and removed from its budgets time and again.
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