Study reveals language barriers cause major linguistic errors in police statements

Lester Kiewit speaks with Professor Monwabisi K. Ralarala, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at UWC

Listen to the interview in the audio below.

Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero recently withdrew his controversial proposal to hire foreign nationals as JMPD officers.

He had initially argued that the language barriers were frustrating police officers investigating crimes involving foreign nationals.

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South Africa has 12 official languages including sign language, and a diverse array of foreign residents. Language barriers can therefore be a real barrier to crime investigations.

According to Ralarala, the country needs trained translators and interpreters within the police service to address this language challenge.

One of his students conducted a study on linguistic errors in police statements and found over 200 mistakes in just four police statements.

“If you look at these major linguistic errors, you are looking at distortions, misrepresentation, omissions, additions. That would have a material affect on the whole criminal proceedings.”

- Professor Monwabisi K. Ralarala, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at UWC

He adds that African languages do not have enough recognition in our justice system and people who are not proficient in English do not have fair access to justice.

“Let the people speak their own languages in court.”

- Professor Monwabisi K. Ralarala, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at UWC

Scroll up to the interview in the audio below.