On Wednesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the South African Sign Language Bill into law during a ceremony at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. This follows the National Assembly, on the 2nd of May, approving the amendment of Section 6 of the Constitution to include South African Sign Language (SASL) as an official language.

The Presidency said the recognition of South African Sign Language (SASL) as the 12th official language is an important step towards the realisation of the rights of persons, who are deaf or hard of hearing.

With this initiative, South Africa becomes the fourth country on the African continent to recognise sign language as an official language. Other countries are Kenya, Zimbabwe and Uganda. Thabiso Tema spoke to Vianka Gounden, a hearing-impaired student and Winner Ntswungu, Founder of Nsovo Learning Academy about what this moment means for the sign language community.