Use of Official Languages Act, 2012 (Act No. 12 of 2012)RegulationsUse of Official Languages Regulations, 2013Part 2: Content and Form of a Language Policy3. Process to determine official languages |
| (1) | In order to determine its official languages as contemplated in section 4(2) of the Act, every national department, national public entity or national public enterprise: |
| (a) | must consider the factors stipulated in section 6(3) of the Constitution, including: |
| (i) | language usage of members of the public that access the services of the national department, national public entity or national public enterprise, having regard to: |
| (aa) | language needs of members of the public accessing the services; |
| (bb) | language statistics in the population census published by the Statistician-General in terms of section 7 of the Statistics Act No.6 of 1999; |
| (cc) | research that the national department, national public entity or national public enterprise may conduct; |
| (ii) | expenses associated with adopting official languages for government purposes; |
| (b) | must consider practical and positive measures that it will take 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. |
| (2) | Before adopting its language policy, every national department, national public entity or national public enterprise must: |
| (a) | publish the proposed language policy in the Gazette for public comment; |
| (b) | grant a period of at least 30 days for written representations to the national department, national public entity or national public enterprise on the proposed language policy; and |
| (c) | consider any such written representations received. |
| (3) | Every national department, national public entity or national public enterprise must publish its language policy in the Gazette as soon as reasonably practicable, but within 90 days of its adoption. |