EXCLUSIVE: Andiswa Gebashe opens up about Sign as SA’s 12th official language

That a bogus Thamsanqa Jantjie got to interpret Sign at Nelson Mandela’s memorial to the whole world was a clear indication that Sign Language isn’t taken seriously in South Africa.

But the news of a bill being passed this week to recognise Sign as SA’s 12th official language is a step in the right direction, but there’s still a long way to go according to Sign Language activist Andiswa Gebashe.

“With the bill being passed, I’m feeling overwhelmed with excitement. It’s like the fear of the unknown,” Gebashe tells The Citizen.

On Tuesday, majority of MPs in the National Assembly voted in favour of adopting the Constitution’s 18th Amendment Bill to make Sign Language the 12th official language. The bill will now be sent to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) for approval before the legislation is signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Gebashe’s concerns stem from the regulation point of view, on whether we’ll see Sign as an option in schools, higher learning or even public spaces such as the Home Affairs.

The experienced activist points to how it was announced only last year, by Basic Education minister Angie Motshekga, that Sign would be added to South Africa’s school curriculum.

“For so many years people couldn’t obtain matric because to pass matric, one needs two subjects and Sign wasn’t an option,” says Gebashe.

She says another issue is that teachers who don’t have great command of Sign get placed at schools for the deaf and are expected to teach complex subjects. “It’s such an unfortunate thing for teachers.”

ALSO READ: National Assembly passes bill to recognise sign language as SA’s 12th official language

An advocate for Sign Language

“There is a huge problem of accessibility to information for the deaf. Even how the news of the Sign Language bill was announced is problematic because most people in the deaf community aren’t aware of the bill.”

She says her father, who is deaf and is a linguist, was happy when he eventually received the news of the bill. “He’s so happy to see his language recognised,” says Gebashe.

Gebashe is incessantly passionate about Sign Language – she describes it as her home language.

She does a lot of work through her company Andy Signs Productions. With experience that spans over a decade, she wears various hats; an interpreter, activist and consultant.

At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Gebashe stood next to the president as he delivered lockdown and Coronavirus updates.

A language in itself

Sign is a language in itself, in the same way isiZulu, Afrikaans and English are. Gebashe says there’s also a distinction between ‘deaf’, the medical term, and ‘Deaf’ as a language.

She says society tends to relegate Sign Language to the side or simply as an afterthought. “It’s TV 101 that when you use a green screen as a backdrop, you don’t show the green screen! But we see that in the news. They treat it like a catering service,” says Gebashe.

She says proper awareness is needed, beyond only having Sign on the news. “I congratulate Scandal for casting a deaf actor. Thami Dish also had a Sign interpreter on stage at the Feather Awards. We need to advocate for more.”

She is currently consulting for a Netflix movie that has an actor that’s deaf as lead.

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