Instead of just two languages, both of European origin, South Africa now had 11 official languages. These are reflected at the head of this article in the names listed for the country.

The languages are English and Afrikaans (as they had been in the past) plus nine vernacular tongues:

Xhosa, Zulu, Swazi, Ndebele (all of them Nguni languages), Tswana, North Sotho (or Pedi) and South Sotho (all of these Sotho languages), Tsonga (also called Shangaan) and Venda.

This also meant that the country had additional vernacular names:

Mzantsi Afrika (Xhosa), Ningizumu Afrika (Zulu and Swazi), Afrika Borwa (Sotho-Tswana), Afrika Sewula (Ndebele), Afrika Dzonga (Tsonga) and Afrika Tshipembe (Venda).

No recognition was, however, afforded to the languages of the country’s inhabitants of longest standing, the Bushmen and Khoikhoi, chiefly because of the small numbers of communities still speaking these languages.

The only surviving Khoikhoi dialect is Nama, spoken by small, isolated communities in the west of the Northern Cape, and by a larger grouping of communities in southern Namibia. Many surviving Khoikhoi communities use Afrikaans in preference to their ancestral tongue.

The Nama word for “south” is !khawagas, while the word Africa or Afrika (either the English or the Afrikaans form is used) takes a final -b (a masculine ending). So the country’s name in (grammatical) Nama is Afrikab !Khawagas. However, most Nama know the country as either Suid-Afrikab or South Africab.

Permanent Constitution:

The interim Constitution continued in use until 1996, when a definitive Constitution was finally produced by Parliament and approved by the Constitutional Court.

The chief difference between the 1996 Constitution and the interim document was that the Senate was abolished (for the second time in the country’s history) and replaced by a body representing the nine provinces, to be called the National Council of Provinces.

With kind permission from Mike Oettle: Armoria – Heraldry in South Africa