In the era prior to democracy in South Africa, Government used English and Afrikaans as the official languages of communication. In  1994, the multilingual character of South Africa was officially recognised and eleven languages were introduced as official languages. These are isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, siSwati, Sesotho, Sepedi, Setswana, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, English and Afrikaans. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996) also establishes Pan South African Language Board to promote and create conditions for the development and use of all official languages; the Khoi, Nama and San languages; and Sign language. The Board is also required to promote and ensure respect for all languages commonly used by communities in South Africa (including German, Greek, Gujerati, Hindi, Portuguese, Tamil, Telegu and Urdu) as well as languages used for religious purposes in South Africa (such as Arabic, Hebrew and Sanskrit).