Announcements

Publishing with Language Policy in Africa (LPIA) goes beyond simply making papers available. It also means engaging in conversation about these papers with the public. Our webinar series gives the authors of the journal an opportunity to present their work to an international audience of peers and colleagues interested in language issues at both academic and sociocultural levels. These webinars foster new synergies, inspire future project ideas, and encourage networking. More info: djouroukoro.diallo2@unibe.ch

our next webinar takes place on 7 November 2025, 4:00 PM (CEST).

In this webinar, Menzi Thango is a writer and author of isiZulu books, will discuss his paper on "Workplace Communication: the use of African languages by banks operating in the 
Free State Province, South Africa". 

Workplace communication plays a pivotal role in addressing the issues of language of 
communication in the workplace, particularly in multilingual settings. The issue of 
language of communication in the multilingual bank settings of the Free State Province is 
a central one in this presentation. The main argument of this presentation is that English 
continues to be the main language of communication and business, especially pertaining 
to the written communication in banks, while African languages such as Sesotho, 
Setswana, isiZulu and isiXhosa are excluded. Furthermore, the argument is supported by 
the qualitative findings suggesting that most banks use English in meetings and legal 
documents such as loan contracts, while most banking customers are speakers of 
African languages such as Sesotho, Setswana, isiZulu and isiXhosa, peculiarly in the 
townships and rural areas where the majority of black people reside.

Menzi Thango holds a PhD in African Language Studies (Sociolinguistics) from the University of the Western Cape, a master’s degree in African languages (Unisa), master’s degree in creative writing (UP), BA Honours in African languages (Unisa) and B Ed. degree (Wits). His field of specialisation is in Sociolinguistics, Language Planning and Policy and Creative Writing. He is passionate about the development of African languages and Creative Writing; thus, his goal is to see African languages as well-developed languages in higher domains such as education, 
technology and banks. He is currently a lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, 
Wits School of Education, lecturing literacy and second language acquisition courses. 

Sign up for the webinar https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/52538f75-22ce-4794-9d7c-6052dabddabb@d400387a-212f-43ea-ac7f-77aa12d7977e