11 December 2013

MEDIA RELEASE For immediate release

SA Translators' Institute on "fake interpreter"

The South African Translators' Institute (SATI) has added its voice to the chorus of protests against the man dubbed the fake interpreter" at the Mandela memorial service on 10 December. This organisation is 57 years old and a member of the International Federation of Translators. SATI's membership is made up of more than 800 professional translators, interpreters, text editors and other language practitioners. There is not yet any regulation of the language practice industry, despite SATI's appeals for legislative regulation going back to around 1985. An act of parliament establishing a professional council is at long last in the pipeline, though. SATI realised that in an unregulated environment unscrupulous operators in the field could easily take advantage of the general public if clients don't know the languages involved. For this reason an accreditation system was introduced in the late 1980s as a form of quality assurance to safeguard the public. This institute's interpreter accreditation system has been in operation for approximately 15 years, specifically to counteract the kind of malpractice this incident at the Mandela memorial service testifies to. The existing accredited SATI interpreters work mostly in the spoken languages, but some are SA Sign Language (SASL) interpreters. In the light of this incident, SATI urges the general public to check whether language practitioners they intend using are SATI-registered, and preferably accredited, for a particular language combination. Enquiries by members of the public wishing to obtain the services of reputable language practitioners, including SASL interpreters, may be directed to the SATI executive director, Marion Boers. Names, language combinations and contact details of some freelance practitioners can also be found on SATI's website at www.translators.org.za.

Issued by the South African Translators Institute (www.translators.org.za) Contacts for further information: Marion Boers (SATI ED): 011 803 2681 office@translators.org.za Johan Blaauw (SATI chairperson): 082 822 5110 johan.blaauw@nwu.ac.za The South African Translators Institute is a voluntary professional association representing some 800 language practitioners in South Africa