President Cyril Ramaphosa will ratify the South African Sign Language Bill during a ceremony at the Union Buildings on Wednesday, enacting sign language as the country’s twelfth official language. 

Ramaphosa’s endorsement of the Bill follows National Assembly’s approval in May to amend Section 6 of the Constitution to include South African Sign Language as an official language.

“The recognition of South African Sign Language as the twelfth official language is an important step towards the realisation of the rights of persons who are deaf or hard of hearing,” Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said.

The new legislation is aimed at promoting inclusive and substantive equality, a cultural acceptance of SASL and ensuring the people who are deaf or hard of hearing have equal protection and benefit of the law.

The Presidency took a moment to appreciate and identify the importance of sign language in South Africa.

“South African Sign Language is an indigenous language that constitutes an important element of South African linguistic and cultural heritage. It has its own distinct grammatical structures and lexicon and it is independent of any other language,” Magwenya added.

South Africa will become the fourth country on the African continent to recognise sign language as an official language, following Kenya, Zimbabwe and Uganda.