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Note, the locations of Katlegos' photography practical and the location on which she wrote her article is not the same.

Library gives indigenous language a platform

The Zakhele Primary School library in Mamelodi East has received 401 isizulu books. The library is a first of its kind around the area. The Zakhele Primary School teaches isiZulu as a home language.
The school received R80 000 from The Mamelodi Trust, a UK registered Charity Organisation, to purchase books from Exclusive Books. “Zakhele School decided to buy a lot of Zulu readers (for whole class reading),” said Ms Helen Smith, the Trust representative. “There are hundreds of these and they are for all ages and are designed to improve literacy levels,” she added. The books include Thula, Mntwana Omcnane by Margot Zemach, Incwadi eNkulu by Oxford Press and many others. The books have also been incorporated into classroom teaching. The teachers are now able to refer the learners to the books. “The library books have helped us with classroom teaching. We are happy to have the library,” said Ms Wihlemina Maliza, an isiZulu teacher for grade one at Zakhele.
Most of the books in the Zakhele library are English. However four shelves have been reserved for isiZulu books. “We are always on the lookout for good reading material for children in South African languages other than English and Afrikaans,” said Smith. She explained that the books donated to their libraries are from external sources. The sources are generally from America, which is why most of the books are in English.
“We are struggling as teachers,” said Ms Onica Selabie, an isiZulu teacher for grade 4-7 at Zakhele. “I teach eight classes and the Department of Education doesn’t provide us with enough books for isiZulu,” said Selabie. The facilitators at the department provide the learning plans and material in English. Therefore the teachers have to translate the work into Zulu themselves. “Translating is a problem,” said Maliza. “It’s difficult to translate some of the English terms into Zulu. It’s really hard to teach without the resources,” explained Maliza. “But we are grateful for the books,” said Maliza. Ms Maliza is currently teaching a class of 52 grade one learners.

Read Organisation South Africa’s reports show that shortage of learning and teaching material has an influence on learning. It seems that indigenous languages are at a disadvantage because of the lack of texts in those languages. “We have found it hard to find books in Zulu, especially non-fiction books,” said Smith. “There also seems to be a glaring gap in terms of reading for teachers in languages other than English and Afrikaans,” said Smith. There are few Publishers of books in indigenous languages in South Africa.
“Kids are not interested in learning their own languages, which is why there is a shortage of publishers,” said Professor Mawatle Mojalefa, a professor of literature and linguistics in the Department of African Languages at the University of Pretoria. “But we need to preserve our languages,” said Mojalefa.
There were learners at Zakhele who felt strongly about learning isiZulu. “I prefer learning more of Zulu because its part of my culture and it’s my home language,” said Xolani Ndlovu, a grade six learner at Zakhele. But others preferred more English. “I enjoy English more, plus I already speak a lot of Zulu at home. So English is a change for me,” said Ntebaleng Koshane, a grade six learner at Zakhele.
Despite the challenges that Zakhele faces, the teachers seem to be positive. “The library is really going to help us a lot in the future,” said Selabie. “I won’t have just one book to teach from,” said Selabie.