At the National Consultative Conference, the Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Ben Ngubane, voiced his support of multilingual education in schools and the use of indigenous languages. Ngubane argued that indigenous languages would foster and promote national unity and reduce the influence of dominating languages, which “could lead to social tension and even violence, as history has shown.” He also announced the launch of a joint project of the Northern Cape government and his department to record and preserve the San and Khoi languages, which are threatened with extinction. Ngubane dismissed arguments that such programs would be expensive and problematic, citing a number of examples of successful multilingual nations.
