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2019 Kovsies Multilingual Mokete Competition winners

23 September 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Charl Devenish

Best dressed winner — The winners of the best dressed social media competition with Earl B (third from the left).

On 18 September 2019, the University of the Free State (UFS) hosted its first ever Multilingual Festival in an effort to promote a multilingual and multicultural environment for staff, students, and all stakeholders of the university.

Staff, students, and other stakeholders of the university dressed in imibaco (traditional Xhosa apparel) ranging from white, yellow, red, and green, Diaparo tsa setso sa Sesotho, and traditional attire from other cultural tribes including Zulu, Swati, Ndebele, and Tswana, to name a few, were treated to various forms of celebration. The festival entailed visual-art displays, poetry, storytelling, drama, music, and song in the dominant languages spoken at the UFS, which are English, Afrikaans, Sesotho, isiZulu, and South African Sign Language, and food stalls selling dishes ranging from pap and braaivleis to koeksisters and milk tart.

The audience were treated to short stories, including Magic on campus, written by Siphilangenkosi Dlamini and performed by Oliver Bongo; Xola Nhliziyo, written by Noluthando Portia Khumalo and performed by Ayanda Khanyile; and Grense, written by Joane Jansen van Rensburg. Nina and Palesa compiled a drama piece titled WTF is a relationship, poems included Mohlomong, written by Thabiso Lesaba and Lucky Mokeona, and Mosadi, written by Relumetse Makhatsane, N’kone Mametja, Abby Gabarone-Phate and Ayanda Khanyile.

Attendants had the opportunity to participate and win cash prizes ranging from R500 to R1 000 in various competitions and performances that took place during celebrations at the multilingual festival.

The winners for the mokete festivities are as follows:
Best artwork – Elaine Mahlalela and Kamogelo Mankuroane
Best short story – Siphilangenkosi Dlamini: Magic on Campus
Best poem – Thabiso Leshaba: Mohlomong
Best drama piece – Nina and Palesa

The best-dressed moketers for the 2019 #KovsiesMultilingualMokete were Joseph Sako, Evodia Mohoanyane, Karabo Lekomanyane, Tshepo Ramokoatsi, and Lungelo Mthimkhulu, who each walked away with R500 for their efforts to dress up and stick to the multicultural theme. Soet-Bravado (House Soetdoring and House Villa Bravado) won the most votes for their performance in the People’s Choice category, claiming R1 000 each.

News Archive

Seminar puts language issues under spotlight

2012-06-29

The South African Languages Bill does not meet the Constitution’s requirements and is not doing much to curb English monolingualism.

This viewpoint of a number of critics was discussed at a language seminar at the University of the Free State (UFS) this week.

The Faculty of the Humanities at the UFS presented the seminar on the Bloemfontein Campus, where interested parties could discuss issues and developments relating to the South African Languages Bill.

The seminar formed part of the combined annual conference of the South African Applied Linguistics Association, the Linguistic Society of Southern Africa and the South African Association for Language Teachers.

At the conference, the rich diversity of language and also the complexity of language in South Africa was recognised.

The latest South African Languages Bill has attracted much interest and varied viewpoints this past year.

One of the most significant - and also the most controversial - suggestion of the present bill is to extend the present bi-language obligation to a four-language obligation, which implies that at least one African language is added to the present formula.

Furthermore, there are other important stipulations regarding the establishment of language units that will have implications for the public service, and specifically, for language practitioners.

Prof. Koos Malan, a Constitutional Law expert from the University of Pretoria, speaking during a discussion session, said: “Language determination in constitutions and language legislation are indications of the official ideology towards dealing with language and cultural diversity in the specific state. The ideology can range from the support of multilingualism – at the one extreme – to the other extreme, where only one language will get preference as the official language.”

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