BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE – While the video of Cebisa Magongo, who fluently spoke a deeper accent of SiSwati during the Buganu Festival at Buhleni, is still trending, there are fresh calls from educators that siSwati should be considered as an instruction medium at all levels of education in the Kingdom of Eswatini.
Reacting to Magongo’s viral video, the educators believe that pupils would be far better if instructed in their mother tongue.
Lutsango regiment, parents and some teachers, have also weighed on this; and agreed that siSwati language was paramount to every generation.
in fact, all this was revealed when Imisebe Publishing Company joined other stakeholders in education here and across the world in commemorating the International Mother Language Day last week.
The calls for recognition of the mother tongue became even louder when Magongo started to trend on the internet on Modnay after the Buganu festival.
Magongo, while interacting with a professional journalist from channel Yemaswati, sounded fluent and showed love and confidence in using his mother language. Worth noting is that he was recently in the top 10 matric performers.
Meanwhile, the day of ‘Mother Language’ is celebrated every February of each year around the world, under the stewardship of the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). This year’s theme is; ‘Multilingual education: a necessity to transform education’.
During this event, Imisebe announced that they would be hosting a siSwati spelling competition in collaboration with Technosol, a technology company based in the country.
Senior Inspector of siSwati Language Celiwe Muhammad said the Ministry of Education and Training would support the competition because such initiatives added value to the ministry’s mandate.
Speaking during this year’s commemoration of the International Mother Language Day held at the pristine Maguga Lodge, Dr Lubisi noted that governments tended to put priority on laws and other areas that governed education ahead of the promotion and protection of indigenous languages.
Dr Lubisi, a PhD holder in Language, Culture and Religion, is himself an executive member of the South African Government as he is General Manager of Cultural Affairs in the Mpumalanga Government. He commended Imisebe Publishing Company and other proponents of the application of siSwati as a medium of instruction in schools, challenging the publisher to show the world why siSwati was important in transforming education in the kingdom. Imisebe, the country’s first wholly Swati-owned publisher, organised and sponsored the event.
