Divorce summons in Sepedi a first before the court

A DIVORCE summons issued in Sepedi is not an everyday occurrence in the courts, but a couple are adamant that they want their court documents issued in their mother tongue.

Their lawyer, Tshepo Sebola, of the law firm Maluleke Seriti Makume Matlala Inc, said that as Sepedi was one of the 11 official languages of this country, it was his clients’ right to have a summons issued in their language.

“It is permissible to do this and, as far as I know, it has not been done before in this court. This will not be the last from our office.

“Our indigenous languages need to be recognised,” Sebola told The Star’s sister paper, the Pretoria News, yesterday.

But Sebola and his team were not sure what to expect of the presiding Judge Bill Prinsloo in the high court in Pretoria.

But the judge did not need to deal with the language dilemma, as one of the parties to the divorce was ill and the matter had to be postponed. The judge did not comment or react as the case was called and he merely looked at the file.

Language rights activist lawyer Cerneels Lourens, who has scored several language victories over the years, said it would be preferable if such a matter was allocated to a judge who speaks the particular language in which the legal documents have been issued.

One of the victories scored by Lourens over the years was to compel the government to serve the public in all the official languages.

“I fully agree that a person is entitled to be served by the courts in his or her mother tongue. I in fact welcome it. There are more than enough judges who can deal with matters in the various languages. Cases like these should be allocated by the registrar to the judges who are fluent in that particular language.

“There should thus be a language-management plan which will give recognition to the various languages,” he added.

While the most commonly used language in courts was English, Lourens said he knew about a judgment delivered in the past by Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe in isiXhosa.

Former Acting Judge Francois Botes agreed that it was everyone’s constitutional right to have their case heard in the language of their choice.

‘Recognise our indigenous languages’