Observations on the use of official languages for the recording of court proceedings

Abstract

The focus of this note is on the latter, more particularly on the implications of the language provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, for the use of the official languages for the recording of court proceedings in South African courts and for the safekeeping of court records by the state. The official use of languages to record court proceedings, on the one hand, and the unofficial use of languages by accused, litigants and witnesses, on the other, have implications for each other. The use of different languages for recording court proceedings has direct implications for various individual rights of accused, witnesses and parties involved in criminal cases and civil litigation. However, those rights that relate to the unofficial use of language in court proceedings are not discussed here.