This paper explores and critically assays the use of code-switching in a transcript of a South African public hearing discussion, qualified ‘Public hearing of Gauteng Liquor Amendment Bill, 2006: Questions and answers’. It tries to reply two queries, viz. what circumstances warrant or aid the practice of this linguistic strategy, and to what level people’s multilingual and bilingual skills allow them to practice code-switching, either aware or unaware to obtain maximum bias in a conversation.