Telecommunication companies like Vodacom including state owned entities such as the education and health services sector, are not fast enough in including South African languages in their AI services offerings, hindering digital transformation and economic growth for non-English speakers.
- The dominance of English in AI and tech development in South Africa creates a language barrier, excluding 92% of the population who primarily speak indigenous languages
- Incorporating all 12 official South African languages into AI and technology could lead to greater inclusion, social cohesion and open up a significant market among young individuals.
- There’s a risk of “language death and marginalisation” if indigenous South African languages are not incorporated into new technological developments and AI.
South Africa is a country that is pursuing digital transformation in modernising government services and driving economic growth yet the results aren’t showing as yet.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Mr. Solly Malatsi, this year launched the Roadmap for Digital Transformation of the South African government. This comes as the government’s commitment to inclusive growth, efficient service delivery and ensuring that government services are accessible to all South Africans.
But the dominance of English in AI and tech development excludes 92% of the population who primarily speak indigenous languages in South Africa, limiting access to digital tools, education, and economic opportunities for the youth.
This is a big issue in a country with 12 official languages. Only 8% of South Africans speak English at home, according to Stats SA. Yet most online services offered in AI, such as online banking and mobile phone bot operated customer services on platforms like WhatsApp, are in English and this creates a language barrier for many people.
Dr. Lindiwe Tshuma, a language advisor at Wits University, says “Before we talk about AI we need to ask whether or not everybody has reputable access (to mobile a phone) and does everybody have digital literacy?
“We are not expecting everybody to produce content in all the 12 official languages of the country, but we expect it to at least pick a few,” said Dr. Tshuma.
Tech giants like Google and Microsoft have translation tools on their website, but the problem is not just about translating websites, it is also about how AI understands and responds to indigenous South African languages.
In a multilingual country such as South Africa, there are non-English languages that are more widely spoken such as IsiZulu and Xhosa, but no language is bigger or more important than another and therefore should be all represented in the tech and AI space.
“Our technology enables more people to engage in the digital economy using various languages,” says Partnership Associate at Botlhale AI Solutions, Amogelang Tsetse.
“Customers of different languages who don’t necessarily fully understand English also understand what is happening digitally,” Tsetse added.
The lack of South African languages in AI has a bigger impact, such as access to education and economic opportunities for the youth, particularly in a country striving for both linguistic diversity, social cohesion and inclusion.
Dr. Tshuma warns of language death and marginalisation should tech and AI companies and language experts not make any strides.
“We need to be looking at the readiness of our African languages to be incorporated into AI. Some of our languages are not yet fully developed but this does not mean that they must not be incorporated into the technological advances taking place, otherwise we are contributing to language death and marginalisation” she says.
There is a huge opportunity for companies that embrace local languages. There is a widespread mobile device ownership in South Africa among younger, tech-savvy individuals aged 15–34, according to South African News Agency. This is a massive market.
“Our team is made up of 50% engineers who understand that technology exists to help people understand things in their own language,” said Tsetse.
South Africa has a rich linguistic heritage and incorporating all the 12 languages into tech and AI developments and advances ensures the inclusion and social cohesion the government says it is aiming for in its digitisation projections.
FEATURED IMAGE: AI image with quote on African Languages and tech. Photo: Zanele S. Maduma
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