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Language and Legislature: An Overview of our Findings

The premises of Constitutional Court of South Africa can be seen to contain a wide variety of different signs, which serve various purposes. Throughout the analysis represented within this blog, it is evident that despite the establishment of the court on the basis of the Constitution, in which the equal use of all official languages and previously marginalised languages is enshrined, the de facto language policy within court signage can be seen to contain a majority use of the English language. Thus decreasing the extent to which this institution is able to truly redress the injustices caused by the language policy of Apartheid.

Despite the high levels of English within the official signage, the Constitutional Court cannot be characterised as disregarding the language policy of South Africa, as various instances of the use of official languages and other forms of communication such as braille, are evident throughout the signage presented and analysed within this blog.

The linguistic landscape of the Constitutional Court and surrounding areas can be seen to reflect the diverse nature of South African society. This is evident in the presence of many different languages within the various signs, including foreign and indigenous language, and the presence of various discourses within these signs, such as nationalist discourses in contrast to the transgressive discourses presented within the few instances of graffiti. The court can also be seen to depict the contemporary democratic nature of South Africa, as is apparent in the signs containing symbolism which perpetuate ideologies of equality and transparency.

The signage present within this premises can also be seen to reflect the nature of this area as highly regulated tourist destinations. This regulation is evident in the high levels of top-down signs, in conjunction with the smaller presence bottom-up signs which are restricted by regulations created by the court administrative body. The nature of this premises as a tourist destination is also highly evident in the use of foreign languages and English within official signage, however, the presence of signs in official South African languages can also be seen to illustrate the fact that this area is also frequented by South African civilians.

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The emblem of the Constitutional Court can be seen as a deeply culturally symbolic image, depicting the silhouettes of individuals under a large tree. This imagery can be seen as a reference to the traditionally African custom of “justice under a tree” during which disputes and legal matters were confronted and resolved through meetings held under a large and often socio-culturally important tree. The symbol of the tree can also be correlated to ideologies of strength and wisdom, thus allowing this emblem to serve the symbolic function of perpetuating ideologies in which the court is viewed as an insightful body which dutifully protects and upholds the legislature outlined within the Constitution. The use of this inherently African imagery within the emblem of this institution can also be characterised as signifying the commitment of this institution to its African roots, despite the presence of international cultural artefacts and languages within this space.

The use of silhouettes in order to depict the individuals within this emblem can also be regarded as a noteworthy decision, as the silhouettes cannot easily be attributed any characteristics such as race; gender or age, but rather can simply be grouped together through their humanoid qualities, thus invoking the discourse of all individuals being equal in front of the new democratic law and thereby perpetuating the ideology of the court being fair and just. This use of silhouette can also be seen to allow the few individuals depicted within the emblem to represent the South African nation as a whole, as the individuals possess no discernable identities, therefore reinforcing the ideologies of unity and nationalism and the discourse which states that the court is an arena in which the nation is able to actively participate in order to build a better democracy.

This sign can also be seen as consisting of individual gold plaques. These plaques can be characterised as an instance of duplication, as each sign contains the exact same statement:

 “The first Constitutional Court of South Africa, established under the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993, was opened by President N.R. Mandela on 14. 02. 1995. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Let justice be administered in this Court without fear, favour or prejudice.” 

in each of the eleven official languages. This use of all the official languages can also be seen as in accordance with the national language policy, which attempts to “promote the equitable use of the 11 official languages” (Department of Arts and Culture, 2002:10) in all state institutions. Each plaque can be seen as possessing the informational function of recording and conveying information regarding the establishment of the court, whereas the plaques as a whole can be seen to symbolically represent the multilingual and highly diverse nature of South African society. The concurrent use of these visual and linguistic elements in order to convey symbolic and factual information can thus allow the sign to be characterised as a multimodal sign.

The placement of each plaque within the sign as a whole can also be seen to possess symbolic meaning. This is evident as, despite the fact that the language policy of South Africa attempts to “ensure redress for the previously marginalised official indigenous languages” (Department of Arts and Culture, 2002:10) by promoting the use of these languages over the colonial languages of English and Afrikaans, the sign placed in the court can be seen to offer a position of higher prestige to three languages, namely Zulu; Afrikaans and English. This prestige is evident as both Zulu and Afrikaans are placed at the top of the lists of plaques on either side of the emblem and English is provided with the most prominent central position directly under the emblem. As mentioned in previous posts, the placement of the English translation may be attributed to the nature of the court as a tourist destination, however, the placement of these languages can still be seen to illustrate the higher de facto prestige attributed to languages such as English within the South African context, as the wall upon which this sign was mounted was long enough to allow each translation to be placed directly next to each other alongside the emblem.

This sign can be characterised as an ideal representation of a top-down sign which was commissioned and mounted by the administrative body of the Constitutional Court, as seen in the fact that it makes use of elements such as a standardised font and a border around each plaque to enhance the official nature of the sign. The top-down elements of this sign are also evident in the presence of the official court emblem and the professional design of this sign, as is apparent in the use of expensive materials such as high-quality woods and gold-plating.

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This sign, found on Juta Street, belongs to a highly recognized security service in South Africa- ADT.  

Although this sign was not created by an official government institution, it can be seen as an example of a top-down sign as it has been produced on a more professional level. The fact that this sign has been placed outside of a building on Juta Street raises ones awareness into the surroundings of this area in that people feel the need to have 24 hour security. 

This sign has been vandalised with 2 stickers; firstly, a sticker of the international brand “coca-cola” and secondly, a sticker advertising a 24 hour towing company. This may have been placed here as this social actor also provides the public with a service that may be useful towards the people in this area. 

It has been noted that the use of stickers placed on signs, is a prominent form of vandalism in this area. This shows that the people occupying this space are not necessarily respectful towards official signs. 

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This photo was taken of a sushi restaurant on Juta Street. The wall and window of the restaurant form part of the sign, together with the neon "sushi" sign that lights up at night. The wall of the restaurant has a fish painted on it in a street art style. This fits in with the prominence of graffiti in Juta Street, however it is done in a professional and artistic manner. The window of the shop is below the neon sign. This lead to the interpretation of the neon "sushi" sign as the ideal, because people read the word sushi and think about their ideal serving of sushi. The window functions as the real, because the audience can look directly into the restaurant. The real can be seen as an empty table, or if someone is having a meal, the actual sushi can be viewed through the window and the audience can see exactly what they could get inside. The window also serves as an interactive advertisement. People walking past may see others inside eating sushi and decide to go in. Depending on who is seated at the table, the people in the "advert" may actively interact with the people looking at them or they may ignore the audience and focus on one another and their meal.

[signsonjutastreet-blog]

These photos were taken of two mobile signs on Juta Street. Both signs are directive and guide the audience to the doors of shops whose entrances are partially concealed. The signs are taken off the street and moved inside once the shops close for the day. Both signs are made of stainless steel and have been professionally made and painted. There has been money invested in the signs. This highlights the difficulties in clearly distinguishing between top-down and bottom-up signs, because although the signs have not been created by the government, they are more official than many of the paper signs and advertisements seen on Juta Street.

[signsonjutastreet-blog]

These are more examples of graffiti written on the wall labelled "exhibition for those who can relate". Racial inequalities are still hugely prominent in South Africa, despite the fact that the country has been ruled democratically by the ANC for over 20 years. This wall takes on an expressive function as it has been used as a space to share feelings and emotions about race. The message "FUCK WHITE GIRLS" is written in all caps on the wall and can be interpreted as holding anger or resentment towards white females. Underneath this is the word "literally" in a different handwriting, suggesting that it may have been added by a different individual to resist the message of anger. This sends a message that white women are desirable. In South Africa white bodies have often been seen as the ideal, because of the history of apartheid and the privileges white people were afforded under this regime. Alternatively, the original message can be read in a sexual manner, and the added word "literally" as agreeing with rather than resisting this message. Whichever way you read it, this graffiti points to the fact that despite the end of apartheid, there is still a discrepancy in the way black and white bodies are viewed and desired. Another racial message on the wall is "Story of my life I was black I'm still black". This has reference to the difficulties black individuals still face because of apartheid. It is impossible to escape being black, and thus it is impossible to escape the struggles that come with being previously disadvantaged. Black individuals still face inequality because of the political structure of the past and this message points to the emotions of frustration and anger that come with accepting this struggle. It is interesting that the messages on this wall are written in English, when the authors are most likely black individuals who do not speak English as a first or even second language. However, English is the dominant language in official signs on Juta Street, and the street is in close proximity to Wits university, where English is the language of instruction. Thus the authors of the graffiti may have been influenced by the language in their environment rather than their home languages.

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The Nelson Mandela mural was painted in honour of the 25th anniversary of the Purple Rain Protest that took place in Cape Town in 1989. It was an anti- apartheid protest. The Police sprayed all of the protestors with water containing purple dye. This was done so that the police could later identify and arrest protestors. This day of protesting became known as the Purple Rain Protest. The following day, graffiti was found around Cape Town saying “The Purple Shall Govern”. This is a play on the words found in the freedom charter’s declaration that “the people shall govern”. Nelson Mandela is used in this mural as he is semiotic of the freedom of South Africa and the ideal and real figure representing freedom in South Africa.

Across the road from this mural, on a wall containing a lot of informal graffiti, writing saying : “Blood and Ashes Buy Freedom” is found. This is appropriately placed within this landscape . During the apartheid era a lot of lives were sacrificed in the fight for freedom and the Mandela mural represents a part of the fight for freedom in South Africa. This struggle for freedom is flaring up again in South Africa.

Approximately 500m’s away from this site on Juta street is the University of the Witwatersrand. Currently there is an ongoing protest whereby students are calling for free education. This movement is known as the #FeesMustFall protest. The protest has gotten violent over the last few weeks and as a result the police have responded forcefully, with many students getting arrested, shot with rubber bullets and taken down with stun grenades and tear gas. These protests are deperate pleas to make education more accessible to the poor population of South Africa and the missing middle class. A lot of these protests resonate very strongly with the protests of the Apartheid era. Many of the protestors come from disadvantaged backgrounds, hence they cannot afford tertiary education. Many of them are disadvantaged due to the constraints that were placed on their families during the apartheid era and thus, the struggle is ongoing.

Not far from this informal graffiti there is a tag saying “Santa hates poor kids”, this was found again on the next block of Juta street on a garage door and later that day the same tag was found in a mens bathroom at Flower Hall on the west campus of the University of the Witwatersrand. After asking a few people about this tag it was revealed that there is a general belief/ rumour that the person doing this tagging is an art student at this university. Thus, it reiterates that there is a very underprivileged population of students at the university and they are expressing their pleas through many different forms (in this case, graffiti). Ironically though, across from this wall where this grafitti is all found, and below the Mandela mural, is a shop that sells Vans shoes.

Vans shoes are known to be an expensive and somewhat exclusive and international brand. It forms a strong contrasting impression of the people who frequent Juta street. It is also interesting to note that the proffessionally done mural by an international artist known as Shepard Fairey and the exclusive Van shop (as well as many other exclusive shops) are all on the one side of the street and then right across from that part of the street is this graffiti that is filled with emotion and pleas for freedom.

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The sign showcased above can be characterized as a top-down sign, as it was issued by the officials of the court. This sign can, therefore, be seen to symbolically represent the presence of an authority within the court which regulates the signage placed on the premises. The informational function of this sign is to indicate what the room below the sign is used for and to provide visitors with directions regarding the locations of various rooms within the court, as seen in the fact that this sign is mounted high on the wall to ensure heightened visibility.

This multimodal sign is twofold, on the left-hand side is a visual of what the sign is indicating. The picture is of people being seated in uniformed formation, this is a universally recognized symbol for a gathering area. The use of visuals within this sign can be attributed to attempts by the court authorities to ensure that those who are unable to understand the languages on the right-hand side are still able to gather information from the sign.

On the right-hand side, there is the name of the room which is the “auditorium” in two different languages, which can be seen as an example of duplication. The top language, “ Oditoriamo” is in a European language, more specifically Bulgarian, whereas the bottom name “iholo yabaphulaphuli” is in Xhosa. The choice of these languages, in particular Xhosa, can be seen as an attempt by court authorities to adhere to the national language policy of South Africa, which states indigenous languages should be used as official languages in order to foster national unity.  The use of a European language can also be attributed to the nature of the court as a highly frequented tourist attraction, therefore the sign can also be seen to symbolically represent the court as a building of internationally high standards, which is open both to the South African population and foreign travelers.

The use of various languages throughout the court signage, as depicted within the above image, can thus be seen to illustrate the pluralistic nature of contemporary South African society.