MOTHER TONGUE DAY 2025
MEDIA DEVELOPMENT AND DIVERSITY AGENCY (MDDA) HIGHLIGHTS THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF COMMUNITY MEDIA IN PROMOTING MULTILINGUALISM ON INTERNATIONAL MOTHER TONGUE DAY
21 February 2025
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South Africa has over 200 community radio stations, six community television
broadcasters, and more than 300 publishers, delivering content, news, and music in
multiple official languages. Many community radio stations broadcast in more than
one language, reinforcing their role in promoting linguistic diversity. On International
Mother Tongue Day (21 February), the MDDA acknowledges the crucial role of
community media in preserving and promoting indigenous languages and cultural
heritage across South Africa.
MDDA CEO, Ms Shoeshoe Qhu, says, “While South Africa has 12 official languages, we must also recognise regional dialects that are spoken within various communities, which also deserve to be protected and which play a key role in promoting cultural diversity and history through the spoken and written word.”
Sajonisi Youth Radio, based in the OR Tambo District in the Eastern Cape, broadcasts in IsiMpondo, a language spoken by the AmaMpondo people in the region, as well as in IsiXhosa and English. Additionally, print publications like Youth Voice Newspaper contribute to this multilingual landscape, publishing in three languages, including SePulana (also known as Sekutswe). SePulana is spoken by the MaPulana people in Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces, with approximately 800,000 native speakers.
In line with its vision for an accessible, developmental, diversified, and sustainable community and small commercial media environment in South Africa, since its founding, the MDDA has supported over 361 community radio and television stations since its inception, many of which broadcast in remote regions in their indigenous languages. Furthermore, the agency has trained and mentored over 3016 individuals, during the same period, as part of its capacity building strategy.
While the community media remains critical in promoting indigenous languages in the country amongst other key democratic roles, a study launched by the MDDA, suggests that sector faces many challenges which threaten its sustainability. Qhu says that this is due funding constraints and a lack of skills amongst other issues, as highlighted in the 2024 MDDA Community Media Sustainability Report. Qhu adds, “The research highlights that despite over 20 years of development efforts by the MDDA, only 7% of research respondents considered their organisations to be sustainable; whilst 74% indicated that their organisations were partially sustainable.
Community radio had a higher sustainability score when compared to community television, community and small commercial print, suggesting that these sectors need more support, especially if we are looking at preserving indigenous languages.”
Ends