EDITOR’S VIEW Celebrate the love of our languages

ON 16 November 2011, at around the time the Truro docked in Durban way back in 1860, a group of ordinary Indian South Africans came together. In addition to their nationality, they had one other feature in common – a love for Indian languages.

According to those present it was the first time in 151 years that representatives from the five Indian language groups – Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu – had come together with the intention of promoting Indian languages.

Their efforts have resulted in Our Mother Tongue – published in POST in the month that the United Nations celebrates language diversity.

Our Mother Tongue is not designed to make anyone a master of any of the five languages. The aim is to merely rekindle an appreciation for the languages with which our forefathers arrived in South Africa.

Language is a part of our culture and a part of who we are.

To some extent it even identifies what type of South Africans we are.

The unity that resulted from Our Mother Tongue bodes well for the future of Indian languages in South Africa. POST is proud to be a partner.

SOUTH AFRICA heaved a sigh of relief when former President Nelson Mandela was discharged from hospital on Sunday.

The 93-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner was admitted a day earlier for a diagnostic procedure to find out why he was suffering from stomach pain.

The news that Madiba was well was conveyed to the world by none other than President Jacob Zuma.

And shortly after Madiba was discharged the Presidency released a statement to this effect.

Mandela’s stay in hospital was handled professionally and full credit must go to the Presidency.

It has clearly learnt some hard lessons from a year ago when Mandela was admitted to a private hospital in Johannesburg for a routine check up.

Back then there was little information on a man regarded as the Father of the Nation.

This time around the Presidency can take a bow.