‘Indigenous Siswati language under threat’

By Khulile Thwala

As the world commemorates International Mother Language Day today, Senior Inspector for SiSwati Celiwe Mohammed has shared that the Siswati language is under threat as there is a lot of modification of the language nowadays.

“As more and more people use mainstream media to learn our language you find that some of the usages of SiSwati words are lost in the translation and we have to constantly engage our colleagues in the media to rectify the mistakes or errors which are published or broadcasted in order to ensure EmaSwati receive accurate content,” says Mohammed.

The senior inspector further says to continue retaining indigenous Siswati they have decided to celebrate the day with emaSwati and they will be in the Manzini Region in Zombodze tomorrow, where the celebrations will be graced by the Minister of Education and Training Lady Howard Mabuza and a representative from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

According to UNESCO, this year’s theme for the 24th edition of the day is “multilingual education – a necessity to transform education”.

“Multilingual education based on mother tongue facilitates access to and inclusion in learning for population groups that speak non-dominant languages, languages of minority groups and indigenous languages,”
says UNESCO.