Deputy Speaker, wathint' abafazi [you strike the women] - if you don't believe this, you could have asked former Prime Minister J G Strijdom, who would have told you what women do when they are pushed to the limit. Ndiyanikhahlela bafazi. [I honour the women.] I would like to salute the women who marched on 9 August 1956 and every woman who is in this House. You are heroines of this nation.
One may ask why we are all speaking English when we are talking about our languages. We must start in this Parliament; we have interpreting services available for Members of Parliament. When we wanted to speak our languages, we were told that that service was not available and that we had to ask somebody who spoke our language to interpret for us. That was very disappointing for us, who are legislators.
I did not realise that language issues were so sensitive until we did this Bill. I must thank God because, really, being a young person chairing people over the age of 50 was tough! There were times when it was very tough. [Laughter.] I wanted to call the police at one stage. However, in the end, thanks to members, we were able to reach a conclusion. I also think it is now time for members of this House whose languages were advantaged in the past to speak our languages as well. It is time for them to learn these languages if we are to speak of a united South Africa.
I want to allay the fears of the hon Mulder and, in the end, to thank him. In the beginning, when we started with this Bill, as we said, there were always problems when the hon Mulder came to the committee meetings. Later on, he became my favourite person.
One of the issues that the Minister will deal with in terms of the Bill is to table a report to the National Assembly on the status and use of languages for national government purposes. The other is to establish two intergovernmental forums, the roles of which would be, among others, to co- ordinate, align and monitor the implementation of language policies, and to perform any other function that the Minister may determine.
I want to also allay the fears of the hon Van den Berg and hon Mavunda about PanSALB. We have already taken a stand on PanSALB's issues. Measures have been put in place, so people must not fear. As much as there may be administration issues in PanSALB, they still have a constitutional mandate that they must fulfil.
One of the issues that I want to raise is that forms must be submitted every year, and there are timeframes within which to report on how far one has gone. It must also be remembered that the Bill provides for language units in the national departments.
I also want to clarify the issue of the establishment of an ombudsman, in terms of section 4 of the Bill. It is crucial to indicate that this will be the first ever language Act to be promulgated in the history of South Africa. It is, without doubt, a breakthrough for all official languages, in particular the indigenous languages of historically diminished use and status.
In the main, the Bill seeks to ensure that citizens of South Africa receive communication services in their first language - the language that they understand best. This is another way of improving service delivery for the people of South Africa, because one of the issues that hinders service delivery is language. If one cannot understand a language, then one will have a problem, especially when it comes to services of government and the filling in of forms in government services.
I would like to say that the ANC supports this Bill. In conclusion, I take this opportunity to request that provinces continue with their provincial Acts, and there must be no fear on the issue of monitoring.
To the hon Van den Berg, I would like to say that I think the DA learnt from the ANC how to reconcile. You must not take the credit. You learnt from the ANC, from legends like Madiba, what reconciliation is. Let us just correct that one.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following people for their support throughout the process of developing the Bill, which, without doubt, has been a very long road: The hon members of the Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture worked very hard. They sacrificed part of their festive-season holiday and arrived at Parliament earlier than anyone else in order to work on the Bill. Let me also thank the two DA members who have since been redeployed to other committees, Dr Annelie Lotriet and Ms Patty Duncan, for the work they did as former members of the committee.
Let me also thank the Department of Arts and Culture; the director-general, Sibusiso Xaba; the legal advisors; the media; members of PanSALB, who were consistent in coming to the meetings; the Language Services Section for the interpreting service; the Office of the Deputy Speaker, especially the Office on Institutions Supporting Democracy; the Parliamentary Monitoring Group; the committee secretary, Johnny van der Westhuizen; the committee researcher, Dr Hlengani Baloyi, my personal assistant, Vera Magadani; Adv Anthea Gordon; Dr Barbara Loots; Adv Zuraya Adhikarie; and the Language Services Unit. The ANC supports the Bill. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
Bill read a second time.