Cape Town brings together the language specialists on International Translation Day marked on Sept 30, 2025. The day pays tribute to language professionals worldwide whose work facilitates dialogue, understanding and cooperation. It followed the theme ‘Indigenous Language Translation: Shaping a future you can trust’.
To honour this day, the Corporate Services Directorate of the City of Cape Town collaborated with the Pan South African Languages Board (PanSALB) to host a dialogue and celebration at the Cape Town Civic Centre.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis welcomed all via video and affirmed that the commitment of the City of Cape Town to multilingualism by ensuring all its services are available in English, IsiXhosa and Afrikaans. The key language practitioners from various spheres of government, associations and institutions of higher learning shared their translation best practices, challenges and developments.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Corporate Services – Alderman Theresa Uys said that the City of Cape Town signed a pledge to promote and support multilingualism in 2022 by adhering to language-related legislative requirements.
Uys said that as being portfolio responsible for translation services, she is honoured to host the International Translation Day of this year, for the third time with PanSALB. The City of Cape Town embraced and worked with PanSALB in championing multilingualism as a national resource and an official conduit to spreading communication.
Considering this, PanSALB Board Chairperson – Prof. Lolie Makhubu-Badenhorst, who is also the director of the University of Cape Town’s Multilingualism Education Project spoke on the impact of technology on translations and how human beings are irreplaceable when it comes to translation services.
Dr Carol Van Wyk spoke on behalf of MEC Ricardo Mackenzie and shared how language services within the provincial government are a necessary duty of democracy, adding that translators are the unseen peacemakers that ensure translated messages to foster respect, trust, unity and understanding.
Chief Executive Officer of PanSALB – Lance Schultz said that in an era of rapid change, the translators are the guardians of truth. They do not convert words, they connect nations and foster peace.
PanSALB is clear and unequivocal to promote multilingualism and safeguard linguistic rights in South Africa. To that end, they fully support the mother tongue-based bilingual education programme for inclusive learning and teaching. Institutions of higher learning must also include multilingual pedagogy. The government must prioritise training and research. As translation unlocks knowledge for millions.
The importance of multilingualism and translation services were the recurring subjects of the day, such as in courts, education as well as within various government institutions. Also, non-compliance to ensure the use of all official languages was identified as one of the underlying causes of linguicism, inequality, racial capitalism, unemployment and higher crime rates in South Africa.