The Language Working Group, together with the Institutional Language Unit, will be launching the first ever multilingual touchscreen directory on the Bellville Campus.

The directory was designed and developed by iPoint, a company which specialises in developing touchscreen directories for shopping malls across South Africa.
“The touchscreen earmarked for the engineering building appears to have the same features as those one would find in malls but offers much more than just directions,” says Theodore Rodrigues, the Acting Institutional Language Co-ordinator at CPUT.

This device promotes multilingualism by allowing end-users to engage with the device in their home language from its welcome screen.

Rodrigues adds that after the end-user decided on a preferred language, they are now enabled to continue their search in that language. In addition, the device also acts as a ‘language teacher’ by providing users with equivalents of certain words in various languages.  This intelligent device currently provides service in the following languages: Afrikaans, English, isiXhosa, isiZulu and Sesotho.

“To fully embrace the concept of inclusivity within a multilingual context other languages are also considered for the future,” says Rodrigues.
“The possibilities of such an innovation are endless, and its launch should be celebrated as a step in the right direction to promote the human linguistic rights of all South Africans.”

The procurement of the directory is part of a multilingual signage project which aims to have signage on all of the university’s campuses translated into the province’s official languages. This launch will take place from 12h00 on the 29th of September.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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CPUT’s special Africa Day lecture focused on “Africanising” universities within the Agenda 2063 period. The lecture was delivered by Prof Simphiwe Sesanti, an African Philosophy and African Renaissance scholar and academic from the University of the Western Cape’s Faculty of Education.

Sesanti said English is just an ethnic language like any other language. He added that the colonialists used imperialism to inflict cultural amnesia into Africans and that education was used in the Eurocentric project.

“Everyone is a person of colour,” said Sesanti. He argued that names of people and places tell stories.

Sesanti said Christ was neither of English, Portuguese, nor French descent. “We, as professors, are a product of imperialism.

“We have universities in Africa but no African universities.”

He added that language is a carrier of culture.

Sesanti said declaring oneself a revolutionary does not make one a revolutionary. He added that Europeans came to various parts of Africa and renamed people and places. He said people’s names carry their culture and history.

“This year is Julius Nyerere’s 100th anniversary,” he said before adding that Nyerere studied philosophy and was not only a politician.

Prof Andile Mji, Dean of Education at CPUT, said academics have accepted that they should decolonise their universities. “Universities should let students be thinkers,” added Mji.

He said Africans believed in oneness, as seen in their circular kraals and rondavel houses.

“Do not illtreat women, whether you know them or not,” warned Mji.

Central SRC President Nanga Codana said Sesanti’s speech brought the audience to its roots and thanked Vice-Chancellor Prof Chris Nhlapo for organising the public lecture.

“If we are to be practical about Africanising the university,[let’s] document it in its policies,” added Codana.

He made a call for residences to be named after African people.

Prof Drikie Hay-swimmer, Executive Director in the Office of the Vice-Chancellor, said they learnt so much from the lecture and persuaded her colleagues to invite Sesanti to talk to CPUT students again.

Written by Kwanele Butana

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