The Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture is concerned that despite interventions by the Committee and the Ministry of Arts and Culture, internal problems at the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) seem to have escalated.

The Committee has received numerous reports of persisting internal squabbles between the Executive Management and the staff, leading to low morale among employees.

The Committee is worried by the negative impact these continuing internal problems have on the organisation's ability to deliver on its constitutional mandate of promoting and creating conditions for the development and use of all official languages. It is even more worrying that PanSALB received a qualified audit opinion from the Auditor-General for the 2011/12 financial year, which was a regression from the previous financial year.

The Committee, together with the Ministry of Arts and Culture, will urgently convene a meeting with all governance structures of the organisation with the intention of finding solutions to the problems.

After the meeting, the Committee will release a detailed media statement to inform the media and the public at large of actions to be taken to remedy the situation.

Issued by: Parliament of South Africa