Translation Services FAQ

Document translation services for the official South African languages.

This is the question we're asked the most. You can find language demographics for Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria on their dedicated pages.

We've included a resource Table of South African Languages by Province 2022 at the end of this FAQ updated with Census 2022 data. i.e. you will see that isiZulu is spoken by 23% of Gauteng, 80% of KZN and 28% of Mpumalanga.

In summary 2022 Census for the whole of South Africa is: isiZulu: 24.4%, isiXhosa 16.3%, Afrikaans 10.6%, Sepedi 10%, English 8.7%, Setswana 8.3%, Sesotho 7.8%, Xitsonga 4.7%, Siswati 8.8%, Tshivenḓa 2.5% and isiNdebele at 1.7% of the national population.

Yes, we exclusively specialise in translations for all 11 official languages of South Africa: isiZulu, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, Sesotho sa Leboa (Sepedi), Setswana, Sesotho, Xitsonga, Siswati, Tshivenḓa and isiNdebele.

No. Current AI translation is not advanced enough and lacks the vast, nuanced data required to accurately translate most South African languages. Read more in our detailed blog post.

South Africa has 12 official languages. However, it is important to note that only 11 of these are written languages. South African Sign Language (SASL) is an official language but is not written.

No, unfortunately we can't help with those. Our focus is on written translation services.

Global agencies often lack the cultural nuance required for local impact. Since 2013 we have focused exclusively on the 11 official South African languages. Our first-language professional translators ensure that your content isn't just translated but localised for the specific South African context.

No. While our head office is in Cape Town we serve a national client base. We have provided certified translations for major corporate, technical and legal hubs in Johannesburg (including Sandton and Midrand), Pretoria and Durban for over a decade.

Yes. We specialise in high-stakes technical fields. Our team provides mining translations, medical translations, legal translations and educational translations that meet strict international quality standards including ISO 17100 compliant workflows upon request.

Security is a core pillar of our service. Since our founding in 2013 we have managed highly sensitive materials including legal contracts, medical informed consent forms and corporate newsletters with rigorous internal protocols to ensure complete data protection and confidentiality for every client.

Yes, we provide specialised translations for various industries including legal: PAIA manuals, official documents, court documents, employment contracts, fees policies, application forms, lease agreements and company manuals; medical: ICFs, participant information leaflets; mining: SLPs, community engagement publications; educational materials and more.

Supported file formats: Word: docx, doc; PowerPoint: pptx; Excel: xlsx; InDesign: indd, inx; Text: txt; Web: html; App: xml and CSV. We can often convert unscanned PDFs back to MS Word if they were originally made in it.

Yes, we offer translation services for websites, apps and digital content in HTML, CSV, or XML to help you reach multilingual audiences online. If you're unfamiliar with HTML localisation for hreflang tags, you're welcome to put us in touch with your web designer. We simplify this entire technical process for you and your team.

We only work with specialist translators with a minimum of 10 years' high-level work experience and academic qualifications from accredited South African universities. All translations undergo thorough editorial checks and technical MS Word spelling checks, even for languages not natively supported in MS Office.

Yes, our translators are highly qualified professionals with certifications from recognised institutions. We issue certificates verifying academic credentials and quality control compliance.

We choose to invest our resources directly into the proven quality of your translation rather than the marketing of an ISO certificate.

The reality is many companies use a generic ISO certificate as a marketing tool without enforcing the rigorous standards the certificate is supposed to represent. We focus on actually delivering those high standards.

We guarantee true quality by mandating a verifiable internal process that exceeds generic certification requirements:

• Qualified Experts: Translation by a subject-matter expert with at least 10 years of professional experience.
• Technical Proofing: Final checks and editing using our proprietary localised exceptions dictionaries (which our competitors do not offer) to guarantee correct contemporary South African spelling and terminology.

We believe a guaranteed process is far more valuable than the generalised claim of adhering to ISO standards that a lot of translation companies make.

The difference lies in linguistic quality vs. administrative formality. While we provide ISO 17100 compliant translations for clients who require that specific process, we believe our standard Certified process offers superior accuracy for South African technical and legal contexts.

A sworn translation in South Africa is primarily a legal formality: it is a document signed before a Commissioner of Oaths, certifying that the translator believes the work to be accurate. Unfortunately, this process is often a shortcut where any individual can sign, with no mandatory editing, proofreading, or technical quality checks performed. The document is legally certified, but often linguistically flawed and full of mistakes. You can read more about this on our blog.

Our translations provide certified expertise you can trust. We ensure that every document is not just legally compliant but linguistically sound by working with seasoned professionals and running a barrage of print-ready checks.

Yes, we never commit to deadlines until confirmed by the translator. We work exclusively with professionals who share our commitment to timely delivery.

90% of South Africans speak one of our translated languages as their first language. View our localised home page in your language: isiZulu, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, Sepedi, Setswana, Sesotho, Xitsonga, Siswati, Tshivenḓa or isiNdebele. Localised homepages will all be a perfect rendition of our English homepage copy and serve as a good indication of the quality to expect on our translation projects.

Email your document to info@iitranslation.com with languages and deadlines. We respond within 5 minutes during business hours.