"Official languages 11 Afrikaans English Southern Ndebele Northern Sotho Sotho Swati Tsonga Tswana Venda Xhosa Zulu" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_africa In mu opinion a nation is a unified culture, in order to be unified they must use the same language. Thus South Africa is still a conglomeration not a nation.

Although 11 languages. Not all 11 are "official" I know what wikipedia said. The government though had it like this last time I was over. English,Afrikaans, Zulu and Xhosa.

I think it's great having 11 official languages, as it shows respect and recognition for all the different groups in the country. It also encourages understanding of diversity, and encourages people to learn each other's languages. Most South Africans speak 4 or more languages, and almost all South Africans speak at least 2 languages, so the policy is entirely appropriate. I completely disagree that everyone in a country must use the same language to be unified. SA is united by many things outside of language, because a common language is not the only indicator of common culture and nationhood. Are all Spanish speakers in the US not 'real' Americans? I find that a narrow definition. And whose language would be chosen as the 'right' one? If a significant group of people in a country speak a particular language, and are defined by that language in terms of their heritage, the state should recognise it. By making a language 'official', the state is obliged to to implement positive measures to elevate the status and advance the use of these languages. In this way, a child born into an Ndebele-speaking family will never have to face a future where she can't get any books or education in her mother language just because it's slightly less common than some other languages. This is how you prevent languages from dying out. Each language has unique attributes in terms of how poetic or lyrical or expressive it can be, and so each language should be treated like an irreplaceable endangered animal that mustn't be allowed to go extinct. There are certain words and expressions that only exist in one language and no others, which means the ability to have the language to have that thought only exists for humanity in that one language. Lose the language, lose the thought.

All eleven languages are "offial"....each of the nine provinces has its official languages....this is so because indegenous langauges were geographically use in certain areas during apartheid...e.g. Basotho were said to belong to QwaQwa, which is in the Free State province....and because Basotho are dominant in the Free State now, Sesotho is one of the official languages of the Free State....neither isiZulu of isiXhosa is. In Gauteng, you have English, Afrikaans, isiZulu and Sepedi as official languages...so will each province be by majority of its people... At national level, all Acts are written in English and all other languages.....if you want a law written in Setswana, you'll get it. Just a correction, we don't have Southern Ndebele...here are official languages: Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu.

There are 11, and their names are as above (by Farino). It's great having 11, and it's great for the translation industry too (the business I'm in), but unfortunately it's also rather unrealistic, and in practice English is *the* language. Anyone who doesn't know English (that's blacks and whites) will get absolutely nowhere. And the same the other way around. If you know English, you don't need to know any other language, except maybe for Afrikaans in certain areas.