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A Review of Linguistic Qualifications and Training for Legal Professionals and Judicial Officers: A Call for Linguistic Equality in South Africa’s Legal Profession

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Abstract

This article is advanced against the backdrop of the 2017 monolingual English language of record policy for South African courts. The legislative framework advanced includes the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 (RSA (Republic of South Africa) 2014) and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development’s Language Policy (RSA DOJ & CD (Republic of South Africa) 2019) supporting an English only language of record policy. Legal practitioners are not required to undergo linguistic training; to be in possession of a university language qualification or be proficient in any of the nine official African languages. Judicial officers are also not required to have any linguistic competency in an additional language other than English. This English only legal system is at odds with South Africa’s language demographics, where only 9.6% of the population speak English as their mother tongue. The majority of litigants do not speak, read, write nor understand English at a satisfactory level (Legal Aid South Africa, 2017). In this paper I advance the South African constitutional provisions, specifically Sections. 6 and 35(3)(k) calling for the elevation of the nine official African languages and the conferring of a language right on accused persons to be tried in a language they fully understand and where not practicable for interpretation to be available. I advance that interpretation services in courts is of a poor quality and adversely affects access to justice Namakula (South African J Human Rights 35(2):219–236, 2019). The paper proceeds to advance the need for linguistic training programmes for judicial officers and legal practitioners. I engage with various case law (State v Ndala 1996), supporting proposed conclusions and recommendations.

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  1. Andrew W Mellon Foundation Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Forensic Linguistics (Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Department of African Language Studies), University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

    Zakeera Docrat

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Docrat, Z. A Review of Linguistic Qualifications and Training for Legal Professionals and Judicial Officers: A Call for Linguistic Equality in South Africa’s Legal Profession. Int J Semiot Law 35, 1711–1731 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-022-09902-9

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