The University of Pretoria is a strong advocate of multilingualism. The reason for this is that multilingualism offers many advantages, some of which are mentioned below.

First, the University acknowledges the fundamental value of harnessing the full language repertoires of both its students and staff in advancing academic success. Second, multilingualism can significantly advance social cohesion. Being able to communicate with students and staff in their home languages (even if only at a rudimentary level) can indeed advance social solidarity in ways that few other activities can. Third, and of increasing importance, as the scholar and activist Neville Alexander argues, multilingualism is important since every language spoken in South Africa is an important 'depository of knowledge' and is therefore important for the simple reason that some of our increasingly marginalised languages 'constitute the only possibility of access to valuable indigenous knowledge that reaches far back into the history of the human species'.

In view of the above, I once again invite our academics and support staff to make use of the opportunity to enrol for our Sepedi (or, more accurately, our Sesotho sa Leboa POD, which was successfully  completed by a significant number of UP academics in 2016. By participating in this project you can support the University's commitment to multilingualism in a practical manner.

By enrolling for the Sesotho sa Leboa (Sepedi) POD, you will also assist the University in ensuring that at least 50% of all its staff and students have at least a basic knowledge of Sesotho sa Leboa (Sepedi) by 2021.