Parliament will consider the cost implications of extending interpreting services beyond the plenary sitting to include meetings of the committees.
This comes after MPs wanted interpretation services not only on request at the meetings of the portfolio committees.
“Clearly, what is coming from the members is that this is an important issue. It can’t be an ad hoc matter. It can’t be just on request only,” National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza said.
“We need to find a way in which the translating simultaneously to our language is actually undertaken.
“My proposal is give us time so that in the next joint standing committee of Parliament we can indicate the cost implications for the full House service and we can all agree as parties how gradually we would like to work on it,” she said.
She made the statement when Secretary to the National Assembly Masibulele Xaso briefed the programme committee on the interpreting services provided at the institution.
There have been complaints about interpreting services since the start of the new Parliament when there were mini-plenary sittings.
There were instances when there were no interpreting services in some proceedings to the unhappiness of some MPs.
Xaso said they render interpreting services in 12 official languages and that they have a languages service to deal with interpreting, translation and reporting.
“We do interpreting when we have Taking Parliament to the People ... In committees, we do it on request. When there is a request, we make that service available.”
He explained the instances when Parliament outsourced the interpreting services for Khoi and Nama languages.
“There has been a greater demand for interpreting services in recent years.
“We provide two interpreters per language per session.
“This is our minimum requirement.”
Parliament has 83 officials working in the languages services – 27 language practitioners, 26 in the reporting section and 30 in translation.
Although he did not say what the vacancy rate was, he indicated that under Ndebele there were zero filled positions.
“We do have a senior language practitioner who provides that service.
When there is a need, we outsources the service,” said Xaso, adding that the vacancies would be filled and there was a submission made to Secretary to Parliament Xolile George.
Xaso said interpreting services were provided during the recent plenaries.
“There may have been instances where the service may not have been available to the extent that is required, but we ensured that interpreting capacity was available, but there was confusion in some respects.”
MK Party chief whip Sihle Ngubane said the issue of interpreting was critical for his party.
“Most of us as MPs are interested to start to communicate with our vernacular languages.
“We have got Khoisan kings to communicate with people in rural areas so that they are able to pass information to constituencies that brought us here,” Ngubane said.
UDM chief Nqabayomzi Kwankwa raised issues about the quality of interpreting that was rendered in Parliament.
“Is there some kind of quality assurance when it is outsourced? “Sometimes you listen to interpreting and find it does not match what the speaker says,” Kwankwa said.
He asked whether the order papers could not be translated into other languages.
Cape Times