Page:Constitution Eighteenth Amendment Act of 2023.pdf/2



'''GENERAL EXPLANATORY NOTE

(English text signed by the President.) (Assented to 19 July 2023.)

To amend the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, so as to recognise South African Sign Language as one of the official languages of the Republic; and to provide for matters incidental thereto.

E IT ENACTED by the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, as follows:—

Amendment of section 6 of Constitution

1. Section 6 of the Constitution is hereby amended—

by the substitution for subsection (1) of the following subsection: (1) “The official languages of the Republic are Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, South African Sign Language, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu.”; and by the substitution for paragraph (a) of subsection (5) of the following paragraph:

promote, and create conditions for, the development and use of—

all official languages; and the Khoi, Nama and San languages; and sign language; and]”.

Short title and commencement

2. This Act is called the Constitution Eighteenth Amendment Act, 2023, and comes into operation on a date ﬁxed by the President by proclamation in the Gazette.