A tussle among parents over the language of learning at a no-fee primary school in Delmas, Mpumalanga, has parents asking: whose language counts most?
The stand-off at Khangela Primary School unfolded ahead of the milestone release of literacy benchmarks this week that cast light on the country’s challenges in meeting its goal of ensuring that by 2030 all pupils can read for meaning by Grade 4.
The 2025 Funda Uphumelele Survey (Funs) found that in Mpumalanga, only 36% of Grade 4 pupils read fluently in their home language. Nationally, the figure is 46%.
No-fee schools like Khangela are disadvantaged compared with higher-quintile schools, with Funs revealing that, nationally, only 36% of Grade 4 pupils in quintile 3 schools reached the benchmark, compared with 74% of quintile 5 pupils.
Igniting tensions over language and identity, Khangela Primary School earlier received a legal notice from parents opposing the decision to drop isiZulu as a subject in Grade R in 2026 while promoting isiNdebele as a home language. The letter demanded an urgent meeting with officials before Grade R registration for 2026 closed on August 30.
A meeting was held two days before the deadline. “We were told isiZulu was being dropped as a subject allegedly due to the influence of royal or tribal houses, which claim the Nkangala area belongs to isiNdebele-speaking people,” said parent Florah Nhlanhla Sitoe.
South Africa’s language policy makes provision for everyone “to receive education in the official language of their choice in public educational institutions”.
English and Afrikaans dominate the Nkangala region’s foundation phase classrooms, while isiNdebele, one of the major indigenous languages there, remains sidelined, even for native speakers.
We were told isiZulu was being dropped as a subject allegedly due to the influence of royal or tribal houses, which claim the Nkangala area belongs to isiNdebele-speaking people.
— Parent Florah Nhlanhla Sitoe
Khangela Primary School now has isiNdebele as a home language from Grades R to 3, promoting the mother-tongue-based bilingual education (MTbBE) model. African languages are now being extended into Grade 4, with mathematics, natural sciences and technology to be taught in either isiNdebele or isiZulu.
This policy aims to deepen reading for understanding and reduce literacy shocks to pupils.
The 2026 plan at the school was to have just one isiZulu home language Grade R class and two for isiNdebele, leaving isiZulu-speakers without placement. “We had no choice but to seek legal help,” said Sitoe. “Section 27 of the Constitution protects multilingualism.”
Sitoe said the meeting ended in a compromise: the school added a second isiZulu Grade R class, allowing both languages to coexist with two classes each.
“My children speak isiNdebele. It’s our language, our identity,” said Thoko Ndlovu, a parent who described how teachers trained in English default to isiZulu during teaching, leaving her children confused.
Lilli Pretorius, a linguistics professor at the University of South Africa, said oral language use alone was insufficient. “Schooling success relies strongly on good literacy (and numeracy) development.”
Without strong home language literacy, pupils struggle to transfer skills when language of learning and teaching shifts to English in Grade 4.
Cognitive development expert Jacqueline Harvey of the Human Sciences Research Council said children begin school with uneven cognitive capacities shaped by poverty and environment.
She said that in under-resourced schools, where factors such as poverty, nutrition and pollution already affect development, mismatched language instruction becomes a silent accelerant of inequality.
Harvey warned that starting a second language in Grade R can overwhelm memory and block understanding. Ignoring the mother tongue stifles literacy and severs pupils from their linguistic strengths.
She said access to books, graded readers and storybooks was vital for literacy. “An international study that assesses reading comprehension of Grade 4 learners worldwide recommends targeted funding for age-appropriate books.”
With a lack of books in isiNdebele, even well-intentioned MTbBE programmes falter.
The Funs benchmarks expose deep fractures in South Africa’s literacy pipeline of pupils transitioning to English in Grade 4 without being able to read fluently in their home language.
Earlier grades reveal the same strain. Just 31% of Grade 1 pupils achieved the benchmark of 40 correct letter sounds per minute and only 33% of Grade 2 pupils met their language-specific fluency target.
In Mpumalanga, the inequities are clear: isiNdebele, SiSwati, Sepedi and Xitsonga dominate, yet most pupils attend under-resourced no-fee schools; 84% of isiNdebele and 97% of Xitsonga pupils were in quintile 1–3 schools in 2025.
Pretorius highlighted that reading fluency is a strong predictor of comprehension, “but it only develops if foundational decoding skills are taught well”.
A parent at Khangela, Lerato Saohatse, recalls her isiNdebele-speaking son’s struggle with isiZulu. “At first, he battled with pronunciation and grammar.” She also noticed code-switching at home; however, she acknowledges the social benefits isiZulu brought.
Bongani Dlamini, blindsided by the plan to reduce isiZulu in Grade R from 2026, said there was no parents’ meeting. He fears confidence loss, adding that “learning in a language that is not your own is like starting over”.
The StatsSA Census of 2022 shows 1,044,377 people, or 1.7% of South Africa’s total population, speak isiNdebele as their first language. With nearly 47% of them in Mpumalanga. Yet it ranks fifth among principal languages in the province.
SiSwati has 30.5% speakers, followed by isiZulu at 27.8%, XiTsonga at 10.6%, Sepedi at 10.3%, and isiNdebele at 9.9%, ranking the least spoken despite being indigenous to the region.
The Nkangala region has a systemic mismatch between community language and classroom instruction. This shapes pupil outcomes, parental trust and isiNdebele visibility.
The 2024 DBE data shows 101,743 pupils take isiNdebele as a home language across five districts, over 90% in Nkangala alone. Contrastingly, only 1,060 pupils in Nkangala take isiNdebele as a first additional language, with enrolment declining after Grade 7 and vanishing by Grade 10.
In Nkangala district, 4,782 candidates took isiNdebele home language, with 4,769 passing in the 2024 National Senior Certificate exams, a pass rate of more than 99%. By contrast, only 39 candidates in Grade 9 took isiNdebele FAL in 2024 and passed.
First-language mastery must come before second-language instruction, noted Harvey. Success hinges on early exposure, quality materials and teacher training in linguistically responsive methods. Balanced bilinguals consistently outperform peers and show stronger working memory, she adds.
Despite isiNdebele being spoken by 9.9% of Mpumalanga’s population, according to the Census, it is under-represented in curriculum planning and teacher training. Placement often relies on staffing limitations, forcing children into language streams that hinder comprehension.
A few metres from Khangela, Othandweni Primary School, offers a stark contrast. In 2025, the principal of the Q3 school, James Mhlongo, introduced MTbBE in Grade 4, teaching maths and science in isiZulu and English.
Othandweni went further: creating space for isiNdebele, engaging cultural groups, and unveiling a Grade R class. But no families enrolled.
“Even isiNdebele-speaking families prefer isiZulu, believing it offers broader opportunities,” Mhlongo said. He reflects that language choice is shaped by aspiration, access and perceived mobility. isiZulu is seen as a strategic compromise in a region where English remains the gatekeeper to education.
Harvey warned that unfamiliar languages in early education overload cognition, impairing decoding, comprehension and long-term literacy. Smyth added that without updated dictionaries, trained teachers and community-rooted materials, minority languages risk becoming symbolic rather than functional.
Translator of the Sesotho children’s book Chulumanco to isiNdebele, Bontle Mothoa said: “Language carries identity, dignity and history. When children hear teachers speak isiNdebele in class, it tells them their culture matters and their voice belongs in the future of this country.
“If we lose a language, we lose a world view. But if we nurture it, we give future generations the power to dream, learn and lead.”
The Mpumalanga education department did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Attempts to obtain further details from Mkhize Attorneys, which issued the notice to Khangela, declined to comment citing attorney-client privilege.
This article has been produced with the support of the Henry Nxumalo Foundation.
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