Diritti linguistici in Sudafrica. Il Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) per la promozione della diversità linguistica

South Africa’s language diversity is supported by very progressive constitutional lan-guage provisions. The Constitution (1996) fosters multilingualism; equal rights are entrenched for the 11 languages used by 99% of the South African population. These languages are the two former official languages, English and Afrikaans, and nine African languages. The Constitution prescribes affirmative action for the African languages that were marginalized in the past: these languages «must enjoy parity of esteem and must be treated equitably»; furthermore, in order to address the transformation of these historically marginalized languages and to put in place «practical and positive measures» aimed at advancing these languages, the Constitution provides for the establishment of a dedicated language development agency, the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) which is charged with developing and promoting the use of all the languages of South Af-rica, including the ancient indigenous languages of South Africa’s “first people”. This pa-per aims at outlining the contribution of PanSALB in promoting linguistic diversity in South Africa, particularly in achieving equal status and use of all official languages, in-cluding Khoi, Nama, San and South African Sign Language, not least because, although the constitutional framework concerning the accommodation of South Africa’s linguistic diversity is rather promising, practice reveals a de facto denial of several constitutional principles concerning the status of languages and multilingualism.[...]