Evaluation of meaning in courtroom intepreting testimony between Xitsonga and English : a case study of Mpumalanga

Abstract

People rely on language for the purposes of trade and communication. However, due to the proliferation and differences of languages and cultures, they experience barriers. These barriers may be costly when communicating in courtrooms. Interpreters seldom fail to provide accurate renditions from the source language to the target language. It often occurs that during court proceedings, the accused and the witness persons are African while all the other court officials, except the interpreter, are non-Africans. The researcher has noted with grave concern the extent to which justice is miscarried as a result of inaccurate or imperfect interpretation of evidence of the African witnesses and accused persons. This state of affairs may have disastrous effects causing the presiding officers to arrive at an unjust resolution or verdict.The aim of the study is to evaluate loss of meaning in courtroom interpreted testimony in the linguistic and culturally diverse magistrate courtrooms of Mpumalanga province in South Africa. The researcher was guided by the descriptive and explanatory methods to use qualitative research method to be able to gather necessary data in order to verify, synthesise and establish facts that defend or refute the researcher's hypothesis. Through a field work carried out in 15 magistrate courts of Mpumalanga the study used semi-structured questionnaires and observation sheets. Fifteen court interpreters, fifteen magistrates and fifteen court managers were involved in the study. Collected data was analysed by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Nvivo software. Results showed that inadequate education, lack of professional interpreting skills, language and linguistic barriers contribute to loss of meaning in courtroom interpreting.