Issued by: Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology
21 September 2000
MEDIA ADVISORY
HERITAGE DAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2000
The Ministry of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology will host the Heritage Day celebrations, which will be held on 24 September 2000 in Pietersburg in the Northern Province.
Apart from Minister Ben Ngubane who will deliver the keynote address, Premier Ramathlodi of the Northern Province, will also officiate.
The theme for this year's celebrations will be "Celebrating our Multilingualism."
Our Constitution recognises eleven official languages: Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu.
Other languages mentioned are those commonly used by different communities in South Africa, such as Khoi, Nama, San, Sign Language, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Portuguese, Tamil, Telegu and Urdu, and languages used for religious purposes, such as Arabic, Hebrew and Sanskrit.
The Ministry said that the Country's multilingualism should be seen as a resource with the potential to empower all South Africans to participate fully in the Country's social, political and economic life.
Heritage Day celebrations, on 24 September, will be held in Pietersburg, the capital of the Northern Province, where many of our marginalised languages are spoken. Apart from an official programme a cultural programme, aimed at promoting multilingualism has also been arranged.
The particulars are as follows:
DATE : 24 September 2000
TIME : 12:00
VENUE : Rugby Stadium, Pietersburg
Spoornet has made available a "multilingual train" to ferry a number of guests and artists to Pietersburg and back. The train will leave Johannesburg at 19h15 on Saturday night, 23 September.
There will be performances and other activities on the platform in Johannesburg and on board the train after its release from the Johannesburg station by the MEC for Arts, Culture, Sport and Recreation of Gauteng, Mr Gungubele.
With the aim of promoting goodwill among speakers of different languages, activities on the train will include :
multilingualism, and
Representatives of the Media are invited to the ceremony at Johannesburg station on 23 September, where the train will be released.
Enquiries : Frans Basson : 082 7722 461/(012) 337 8283
Andile Xaba : 082 3776 627/(012)
337 8313
Issued by GCIS on behalf of the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Techonology