Resumen de Language usage and attitudes in a South African prison: who calls the shots?

Vivian de Klerk, Gary Barkhuizen

• South Africa's recent 11-language policy of 1996 aimed to challenge the hegemony of English and Afrikaans and to help South Africans to ``function e€ectively in the multilingual milieu of South Africa'' (Langtag 1996: 13) in all state structures and civil society. This article focuses on one particular state structure, South African prisons (formally known as the Department of Correctional Services), and reports on the language resources, skills, usage, and attitudes of those who work in a local prison, in an e€ort to ascertain the extent to which South Africa's language policy is actually being implemented. It is argued that policymakers failed to take account of the linguistic complexity of the country, the available language resources, and the attitudes of all the constituencies a€ected by their decisions when constructing their language policy. As a result, six years later, little has changed, apart from the fact that English usage has probably increased.

  Successful language policies need not only the blessing of the powerful, but also acceptance from those whose lives and linguistic habits are to be a€ected. They also require extensive linguistic resources to provide the necessary support.