The question is on language, and I think all of us will agree that language can be seen as a vessel in which a society tends to store its memories, its experiences and its history. If you allow that language to disappear, those memories and those experiences - also the type that the President was relating during his response to the debate on the state of the nation address - can disappear and become inaccessible. So language is very important.

The equal promotion of all our languages in South Africa remains a critical part of our nation-building effort. This is entrenched in our Constitution. Cabinet approved the National Language Policy Framework in February 2003. This framework aims to promote the equitable use of all of our 11 languages - the official languages.

This enables the citizens of our country to access government, to be able to interact with government, to get information from government and, indeed, also to get services from government.

Currently government is implementing the Use of Official Languages Act of 2012, as a means of promoting the previously marginalised languages and multilingualism, as well as to foster the equitable treatment of all 11 of our official languages. This Act requires that by May this year, every national department in our government, public entity and public enterprise must have adopted a language policy. It also provides for the establishment of a national language unit in each of these public institutions.

It is hoped that this approach will be emulated by the private sector and, indeed, other organisations. I believe that it is in the best interests of the private sector, acting through the companies, to embrace multilingualism.

These companies typically have a diverse workforce and also have a diverse customer base. Their supply chain is also made up of diverse people who speak various languages. One hopes that the private sector will also be able to do what government is doing to promote the use of as many of our languages as possible. This is a task that needs to be taken up by all of us, as South Africans, in all our institutions. Thank you.