- South Africa should develop indigenous languages into languages used to write judgments, draft legislation and teach law, Deputy Justice Minister Andries Nel says.
- He argues that constitutional transformation requires linguistic transformation to improve meaningful access to justice.
- He proposes a national partnership to expand multilingual legal education, research, and judicial practice.
South Africa's indigenous languages must become languages in which the law is written, taught, debated, and developed, if the country is to achieve meaningful access to justice, Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Andries Nel said.
Speaking during a public lecture at the University of Mpumalanga in Mbombela, Nel said the country's constitutional promise of equality would remain incomplete if most citizens continued to encounter the justice system through languages they could not confidently use.
Constitutional promise requires practical action
Nel said language occupies a central place in South Africa's constitutional order, and that Section 6 of the Constitution goes beyond recognising linguistic diversity. "It recognises 'the historically diminished use and status of the indigenous languages of our people,' and imposes a positive duty upon the state to take 'practical and positive measures' to elevate their status and advance their use,'" he said.
He said language is fundamental to the exercise of constitutional rights. "If the law speaks in words that most citizens cannot use confidently, the constitutional promise of equal protection is weakened at the very point at which it must become real," Nel said.
According to Nel, recognising indigenous languages without expanding their role in the legal system would not fulfil the Constitution's transformative vision.
Interpretation alone is not enough
Nel said there is an important distinction between languages used during court proceedings, legal languages, and languages of jurisprudence. While interpreters enable people to participate in court, he argued that indigenous languages should ultimately become languages in which judgments are written, legislation is drafted, legal scholarship is produced, and constitutional ideas are developed.
He said interpretation remains essential, but cannot be the end goal. "Interpretation remains indispensable. However, we must progress from interpreting participation towards multilingual production."
Court interpreters remain essential
Nel acknowledged the significant contribution made by court interpreters to the administration of justice. He said the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development currently employs about 1,900 court interpreters across South Africa, and maintains a database of more than 500 ad hoc interpreters, including South African Sign Language and foreign-language interpreters.
"Our interpreters make justice understandable and accessible. Their ongoing training and professional development is vital," he said. The Deputy Minister added that South Africa became the first country in the world to introduce the Court Interpreters' Robing Programme in October 2025, recognising interpreters as professionals who play a direct role in protecting constitutional rights.
Universities must help build multilingual justice
Nel said universities have a crucial role because they educate future judges, magistrates, prosecutors, advocates, attorneys, and academics. "The University of Mpumalanga now faces a comparable historical question of whether it will merely teach the legal languages that history has handed to it, or help create the multilingual jurisprudence that constitutional democracy requires," he said.
He proposed that the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, through the Brigitte Mabandla Justice College, enter into a memorandum of understanding with the University of Mpumalanga.
The proposed partnership would focus on education and training, research and innovation, indigenous languages and access to justice, digital justice, and community engagement. It would also promote interpreter training, multilingual court resources, legal terminology development, judicial education, and student internships.
Language is central to justice
Nel said transformative constitutionalism requires not only legal reform, but also linguistic transformation. He argued that indigenous languages already carry rich legal traditions, and should become active contributors to modern constitutional jurisprudence, rather than remaining confined to interpretation.
"Language is the lifeblood of the law. Without words, rights cannot be claimed, enforced, or protected. For justice to be real, it must be spoken in the languages of the people," he said.
He concluded by urging government, universities, the judiciary, and the legal profession to work together to fulfil the Constitution's multilingual vision.
"Thirty years after the adoption of the Constitution, our task is not merely to praise its multilingual promise. It is to build the institutions through which that promise can speak."
He added, "Let us ensure that every language of our people can become a language not only in which justice is heard, but through which justice is imagined, reasoned, and made."
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