Hon Speaker and hon Sunduza, the aim of the Bill which we have tabled is the promotion of all 11 official languages. In cognisance of the mandate of the Constitution to promote all languages, there is no way in which Afrikaans would suffer because, unlike other indigenous African languages, Afrikaans is already well developed. The idea there is to make sure that all government departments, national and provincial, will be legislated to make sure that when we print documents we do not only print in two languages or sometimes even in one language, but that we increase the minimum number of languages in which various government documents will be printed.
At the moment, we are looking at a minimum of three languages, which, inevitably, would mean that even if a department was to use English and Afrikaans, it would be compelled also to use an indigenous African language. I know that a number of submissions have been made with the suspicion that in that process Afrikaans will be disadvantaged, but I can assure hon members that Afrikaans will be treated like any of the other 10 official languages and will be promoted accordingly. Thank you. [Applause.]