The Academic Language and Literacy Unit (ALLU) under the auspices of the Teaching and Learning Department Centre (TLDC) at Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT), hosted a workshop that was facilitated by the South African SADiLaR-Wikipedia-PanSALB (SWiP) Matete Lesele: Wikimedia South Africa. The workshop took place at MUT from 16 to 17 September 2025. ALLU’s Dr Emmanuel Madondo said that SWiP is a collaborative initiative by the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR); the free encyclopaedia (Wikipedia) and the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB).
Dr Madondo added that ALLU hosted the SWIP to emphasize the significance of indigenous languages, particularly IsZulu in the Province of KwaZulu- Natal. “The aim was to encourage the Zulu speaking students and academics, including other indigenous languages to actively contribute to Wikepedia. The focus on IsiZulu and other indigenous languages was driven by its limited data representation on the platform, ranging to less than 12,000 articles, as opposed to more than 7 000 000 000 representations of English, for example,” he said.
The workshop also served as an opportunity to introduce the project to academics and students from various fields of study at MUT, fostering their involvement in this very important initiative.
Dr Madondo said that the project aimed to bring together communities of language practice, such as universities, language directorates, and language entities, to advance and celebrate the use of South African Languages. “It also aims to encourage language communities of practice to actively participate in contributing to the free encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
Alwande Mnyandu, a Marketing first-year student, said she attended the workshop to learn the languages available. Alwande learned that they could post information on the platform in any language. This is likely to give her a chance to help others post information here. She said she felt she could help even organisations to do the same. Alwande plans to use both English and isiZulu.