Language Policy Implementation For Service Delivery: A Case Study of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality in South Africa
Khayelihle Phumlani Nkosi 
& Thabo Ditsele
Issue: Vol.6 No.7 Article 1 pp.963 – 973
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2025671 | Published online 3rd June, 2025
© 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
South African local authorities (i.e., local government sector) have a responsibility to develop and strengthen Southern Bantu languages as prescribed by the country’s Constitution. This was done to make sure that all official languages in the country are equitably used and developed as scientific languages in all government spheres. The purpose of this study was to examine challenges faced by the community in terms of implementing language policy for service delivery at a municipality level. The study selected Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) in Gauteng as a research site.This was a qualitative study, and document analysis and interviews were utilised to gather data from the selected participants. The study found that despite EMM having a multilingual language policy, it overwhelmingly favoured using English at the expense of other languages it gave official status. Hence, the municipality did not do justice to most of its residents who cannot communicate in English as a home language, thereby did not service them well, at least as far as communicating with them was concerned. EMM has taken a step in the right direction by giving Southern Bantu languages official status and such a step can be enhanced by developing clearly spelt out language policy implementation strategies that unambiguously outline how it will further develop isiZulu, Xitsonga, Tshivenda and Sesotho. Official languages chosen by EMM had also been chosen by its neigbouring metropolitan municipalities in Gauteng, that is, Johannesburg and Tshwane, and by collaborating with the two, EMM can improve its offering to its residents by communicating with them more meaningfully in those Southern Bantu languages.
Keywords: Language policy and planning, language implementation, multilingualism, service delivery
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Dr. Khayelihle Phumlani Nkosi is a Sociolinguist and holds the position of Lecturer at University of Zululand in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He holds four qualifications in English/Linguistics from Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in Gauteng, South Africa (viz., a three-year national diploma, a Bachelor’s degree, a Master’s degree, and a Doctoral degree). He has presented papers at conferences and workshops in Africa. He is also a Language Practitioner specialising in English and isiZulu. His research work is on multilingualism and language policy and planning.
Prof. Thabo Ditsele is a Sociolinguist and a Linguistic Anthropologist with a C2 rating at the NRF (National Research Foundation of South Africa). He holds the position of Full Professor at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). He obtained a BA (in Communication and Setswana), and a B Admin Honours (in Industrial Relations) from North-West University. He also holds an M Phil (in Second Language Studies) from Stellenbosch University, and a D Tech (in Language Practice) from TUT. He has read more than 40 papers at conferences, seminars, and workshops in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. He is a leading researcher on Sepitori and has published nearly 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals, as well as a book chapter on Sepitori in a book titled: Global perspectives on youth language practices (2022). He has received two research grants from the NRF, for Tsotsitaal (2014-2016) and for Sepitori (2019 to 2021). As a fiction and non-fiction writer, he has published a Setswana novel titled: Maile maila boganana (2008), two Setswana short stories in an anthology titled: Pelo e ganne molora (2008), and his memoir in English titled: From an obscure village to around the world: Volume 1, Americas (2020).
Nkosi, Khayelihle Phumlani, and Thabo Ditsele. “Language Policy Implementation For Service Delivery: A Case Study of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality in South Africa,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 6, no.7 (2025): 963 – 973. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2025671
© 2025 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
