Language Services – Costing

The main finding of the study is that unclear mandates, framed in broad and open-ended language, contribute to poor operational focus among the three entities. Each entity undertakes activities for the ‘promotion and development of languages’, but since they do not consult each other in the planning phase, their activities overlap. Both PanSalb and the CRL have become inwardly focused, directing activities and expenditure towards corporate services rather than delivery on their core mandates. A disproportionate share (about 55%) of the funding allocated to language functions is spent on administration, and this inefficient use of resources hampers progress towards linguistic diversity. Despite generous growth in income, PanSalb has regularly overspent its budget. It devotes 75% (R42 million) of its budget to administration, and only 25% (R14 million) to core programmes. From this perspective, it exists almost entirely for the benefit of management and administrators, instead of delivering on its mandate. Insufficient attention has been paid to the considerable cost implications of the Use of Official Languages Act of 2012, which requires all national departments, public entities and enterprises to have language units. The cost of setting up and running such units could be as high as R592 million per year.