Shona Is One Of The Emerging Languages In South Africa - Statistician-General Maluleke

South Africa’s Statistician-General, Risenga Maluleke, announced that a new language, Shona, has emerged in Limpopo province, which was not previously captured in the 2011 Census.

Presenting the 2022 Census Report to Premier Stanley Mathabatha in Polokwane, Risenga revealed that Shona is spoken in over 28,000 households, SABC’s Rendani Raliphaswa reported. The province’s population has now reached 6.6 million. Maluleke attributed the population growth to the influx of migrants from Zimbabwe. Rsenga said:

Let’s look at this province: 55.5 % speak Sepedi followed by 17.4% who speak Tshivenda, followed by Xitsonga 17.3% but there is this one which was never there before Shona 1.6 %. So, the people from Zimbabwe are moving into this province and this is their first port-of-call which was never picked up in the previous Census. Now, this is what we are picking up.

Meanwhile, Premier Stanley Mathabatha has voiced his worry about the migration of Limpopo province’s residents to places like Gauteng in search of better opportunities. He believes that to address this issue, they need to develop an education system that prepares their children for the needs of their community and industries. Mathabatha expressed frustration that the current education system does not teach students about mining, despite Limpopo having a mining-focused community. He emphasised the importance of relevance in education to ensure that their people can contribute to the local economy and address their community’s specific needs.

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