http://www.ifas.org.za/research/2012/lesedi-14-july-2012/ The language component of any education policy or curriculum is vital since language – understood educationally as a capacity to read, write and talk without error whilst incorporating cultural knowledge – is both a skill in itself and what essentially provides access to other content subjects. In South Africa the question of language becomes, rightly, a question of politics and distributive justice since instruction is muddied by the gross unfairness of the now defunct Bantu Education Act (1953), and the contemporary transition to a more democratic educational dispensation. Whilst South Africa does recognise eleven official languages and would seem to promote linguistic diversity, there is still a rift between policy and praxis that hinges upon a growing need to see the world from the global South (Nuttall and Mbembe, Eds., 2008), as a heterogeneous place, with its own realities. The double importance of language in education can be resumed under two considerations, namely that a) language is a medium of instruction which enables and constrains learning in institutions; and b) language is itself taught as a subject with greater or lesser effect. The aim of this article is to present findings from a case study which, by drawing on broader research into informal (out-of-school, non-institutional) contexts of writing, has decided interest for the first consideration and may help to draw some conclusions for the second, at least insofar as the teaching of English is concerned. Documentation such as that recently issued by the DoBEi (1997 and 2010) on the status of languages in South African public schools, provides a compelling entry into the debate. On the one hand a policy designed to allow multilingualism, and on the other a clear preference for English as LOLT which ii gives an image of ill-controlled language dominance. Reinforcing this negative image is clear systemic dysfunction where, for instance, there is only 0.9% English additional language teaching in the foundation phase, compared to the 65% of learners who will have English as LOLT in later education, and an even higher percentage who will write their final exams in English. In mitigation is the small but significant rise of parallel and single medium schools in languages such as Xitsonga, isiNdebele and Sesotho, reinforced by the increasingly important role of civil society in forming policy (see Nkosi vs DHS Governing Body and Hoërskool Ermelo vs Head of Mpumalanga DoE).