PanSALB and the Lexicography Developments of the South African Official Languages – A Critical Survey

Before 1994 South Africa had only twoofficial languages, i.e. English and Afrikaans. The1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africadeclared all the eleven South African languagesofficial, i.e. English, Afrikaans, Sesotho sa Leboa,Setswana, Sesotho, Isizulu, Isindebele, Isixhosa,Isiswati, Tshivenda and Xitsonga. English andAfrikaans, which used to dominate all walks of lifebefore 1994, were, and still are, far more developedthan the other nine indigenous Languages in thecountry. The new government considered as one of itstop priorities, the development of the nine previouslymarginalized indigenous languages to bridge the gapbetween these marginalized languages and the othertwo languages, i.e. English & Afrikaans. In order tomonitor and to develop all the official languages, theConstitution provided for the establishment of a PanSouth African Language Board (PanSALB) which,henceforth, replaced all the previous LanguageBoards, which were structured on the basis of raceand ethnicity. To facilitate this development,PanSALB was given, as one of its variousconstitutional assignments, a mandate to establish theNational Lexicography Units for all the eleven SouthAfrican official languages to compile dictionaries forthe respective languages. The main objective with thisresearch is to give critical assessment of the extent towhich the Pan South African Language Boardsucceeded in developing lexicography for the SouthAfrican official languages. This assessment will bebased on the successes and challenges PanSALB hadin the execution of its mandate during the 18 years ofa liberated South Africa, and the significances of thisto the development of multilingualism in SouthAfrica