English is the language used WORLDWIDE!!! Of course we need to speak it in SA! Do you want to kick English out?? Then we raise kids to only know their own language and never grow. Imagine someone who has the potential to become a journalist for Aljezera but can't because he can only speak Tswana??? My kids will learn English - finish and klaar. Its for their own good.

India is the largest English speaking nation! This is while we hate the British the most. It was Gandhi who took the jewel of the crown India first from the British empire.... then the Nkhwame Nkhuruma, Kenyata's, Nyerere's etc....We speak English so we have beaten them in their own game, while they dont know Hindi...Bollywood, the Indian economy etc is much bigger than Britains. The new Brit Prime Minister ( don't even need to know his name) was recently prowling the streets of Bangalore to see how to do things in future... and he could speak english (I guess not fealing superior:-))

The reality of the matter is South Africa, the old Boer Republics included, was colonised by Britain. The world's economic systems were developed in Europe and spread into these colonised places mainly by Britain, France, Spain and Portugal, with Britain having the most dominant impact with their colonisation of USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa, China and huge sections of Africa and Asia. So therefore it would make pragmatic sense to know a European language and in South Africa's case English as a tool of cross-cultural communication. Even in the Roman Empire with its numerous languages, Greek was arguably the main language of education, business or cross-cultural communication. For example even though the New Testament people had their own languages like Aramaic and Hebrew, they still knew and used Greek and maybe some Latin too as a cross-cultural communication tool.Communism, capitalism and socialism are not Chinese inventions. Mandarin was a colonial language used above others like Cantonese in the Old Chinese Mandarin ruled Empires. Mandarin is a colonial language. Teach people their mother tongue by all means, but at the same time provide a language of cross-cultural communication for not only the South African context, but also for South Africans in the world.

Remember what happened to the Tower of bable!!!

@Mams - Us, UK & Europe still have a much higher per capita income than India, china, Brazil, South Africa. The natural resources of the countries mentioned is oil discovered and developed by English speaking technicians. How far round the world could you travel speaking your 7 languages excluding English of course?

@Bongani...you are technically correct because Spanish is the most used language around the world BUT English is the common denominator my friend.

What do you call one who can speak more than one language? Multilingual. And one who can speak only one language? English.

Thandile please get with the programme, we live in 2012 and English is the common language used around the world same as the US Dollar in finance....so whats the problem....are you saying Zulu should be an International Language and the Rand as the common denominator ? oh please give me a break....

As Daz wrote, this article was written in english, its going to be impossible to convince the internet community to use xhosa or zulu or even afrikaans as the official language for the internet. Chinese have 100's of different dialects. There is no time or money to waste with this debate. Just grow up and move on.

Thank God for that, unfortunately there still remains a lot more "colonising" of certain minds ..

I feel sorry for people who only speak English. They are so single language minded. I think its they who feel threatened. Probably the reason for their silly arrogance!!

This whole forum is in English. Zuma spoke English to Abama,the PM of UK, the UN and he speaks it daily in the office . Imagine how stupid it would look if he spoke to Barak in Zulu .

There is so much ignorance and arrogance in these forums, the comments speak for themselves. The same is true for government. Language..Race..Colour Ethnics permeate South African society. Participating in this type of criteria will keep you one step behind the rest of the world....Carry on regardless..!!!!

@Mams - China, India and Brazil and are thriving because their impoverished, abused workforce has not yet risen up against oppression! The highest and worst form of capitalism abounds in those countries which is exactly why they are 'thriving'. They do not have onerus labour laws protecting the workers like SA does. If you travelled there to do business with them (they don't speak Zulu, Xhosa, Sepedi, but yoyu can understand each other in English and not Afrikaans either) you would see, if you got to the back factories, how poorly the workers are treated. They will rise up and China etc will not be so cheap to manufacture goods in. Enjoy it while it lasts. Oh, and @Anonymous, interpreters cost money!

Thandile Sunduza's content is that in SA it has been viewed as if you are brighter if you speak fluent english. English has been associated with intelligence this is where the termnology of Colonialisation of mind came. Please don't blow this out of context, unless you don't understand South African history.

We should focus on standardisation while respcting indigenous languages and cultures.English is the business language used in very continent around the world and may have its roots in colonisation.We need to progress and be competitive with waht we have not play political games focused on the gaining privy from the less fortunate and less educated.ANC was formed by Intelects communicating in English while retaining their mother tongues.

@Daz - You are so correct

@Mams, get your facts right - those countries transact in english on the international stage. On the European front, there is no corrolation between recession and language spoken. What's your point?

@Mams - Have you ever done business with China, India or Brazil. They speak in english when they do business with their foreign counter parts, so does Libya, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. You should go learn economics 101. And next time you should write this in Sepedi, because it seems English for you is only half a language.

Dear Thandi, I'm so sorry that Europeans colonised your mind. We have 9 'official' languages and according to you should also add sign language. That's just not practical for a country - we have to find common ground in order to communicate, particularly at national legislative level. English was chosen and it is the universal language of business. Do you think the Americans sign oil contracts written in Arabic? Seriously? It's not about how many people speak a language - millions of those Chinese work in rural China and aren't involved in international business. Get off your high horse and while you're so upset at European colonialism, take your western clothes and necklace off, stop driving cars on tar roads and build your houses out of wattle and daub again. Stop drinking whiskey at functions and using electricity. Shun ALL the wonderful thing that colonialism brought you, that you use and abuse everyday. Fight Aids with potatoes and rush to turn the wealthiest African country into another dustbowl mess, war-torn by tribes fighting over whose language should be the offical one! You go girl - I'm sure the nation will thank you!