Use of Official Languages Act, 2012 (Act No. 12 of 2012)4. Language policy |
| (1) | Every national department, national public entity and national public enterprise must adopt a language policy regarding its use of official languages for government purposes within 18 months of the commencement of this Act or such further period as the Minister may prescribe, provided that such prescribed period may not exceed six months. |
| (2) | A language policy adopted in terms of subsection (1) must— |
| (a) | comply with the provisions of section 6(3)(a) of the Constitution; |
| (b) | identify at least three official languages that the national department, national public entity or national public enterprise will use for government purposes; |
| (c) | stipulate how official languages will be used, amongst other things, in effectively communicating with the public, official notices, government publications and inter- and intra-government communications; |
| (d) | describe how the national department, national public entity or national public enterprise will effectively communicate with members of the public whose language of choice is— |
| (i) | not an official language contemplated in paragraph (b); or |
| (ii) | South African sign language. |
| (e) | describe how members of the public can access the language policy; |
| (f) | provide a complaints mechanism to enable members of the public to lodge complaints regarding the use of official languages by a national department, national public entity or national public enterprise; |
| (g) | provide for any other matter that the Minister may prescribe; and |
| (h) | be published in the Gazette as soon as reasonably practicable, but within 90 days of its adoption. |
| (3) | In identifying at least three official languages as contemplated in subsection (2)(b), every national department, national public entity and national public enterprise must take into account its obligation to take practical and positive measures to elevate the status and advance the use of indigenous languages of historically diminished use and status in accordance with section 6(2) of the Constitution. |
| (4) | Every national department, national public entity and national public enterprise must — |
| (a) | ensure that a copy of its language policy is available on request to members of the public at all its offices; and |
| (b) | display at all its offices a summary of its language policy in such manner and place that it can be read by the public. |