Translation Services for Cape Town’s Most Spoken Languages

For most Cape Town organisations, the answer is Afrikaans and isiXhosa. According to Census 2011 data, Afrikaans is the first language of 35% of Capetonians and isiXhosa of 29%, meaning a translation into both languages allows you to communicate with nine out of ten residents in their mother tongue. English accounts for a further 28%, giving near-total coverage across the city. This two-language approach is the most cost-effective way to reach the full breadth of Cape Town's population, from Bellville and the Cape Flats to Stellenbosch, Paarl and George. For organisations with a national footprint, these translations carry significant reach beyond the Western Cape. IsiXhosa is spoken by 16.3% of South Africans nationally, concentrated in the Western and Eastern Cape, while Afrikaans reaches 10.6% of the national population including the Northern Cape and parts of the Free State. You can explore language demographics by province in our language statistics table.

We use transparent per-word pricing for all projects. The figure in your quote is the final amount, with no administration fees or surcharges added afterwards. Rates for Afrikaans, isiXhosa and all other official South African languages are determined by the total word count and technical complexity of the content, with specialist rates applying to legal, medical and academic documentation. Our minimum project cost is R500 + VAT. We do not charge premium fees for faster turnarounds. Most Cape Town clients receive a firm, personalised quote within 5 minutes of emailing their document during business hours.

Yes. We provide certified Afrikaans and isiXhosa translation for legal contracts, PAIA manuals, court submissions, employment agreements, government tenders and Western Cape provincial compliance documentation. Every certified translation is produced by a university-qualified first-language translator with a minimum of 10 years' subject-matter experience and passed through our ISO 17100:2015-compliant editorial process. It is worth noting that we do not provide sworn translations for personal immigration documents such as birth or marriage certificates. Our focus is exclusively on institutional and technical documentation. If you are unsure which certification type your document requires, our comparison of certified, ISO-certified and sworn translations explains the difference in plain terms. Read more about our legal translation services.

Yes. Our head office is in Oranjezicht, Cape Town and has been since we were founded in 2013. Being based in the Mother City means we understand the Western Cape's specific institutional landscape, from the language requirements of the Western Cape Provincial Government to the academic publishing standards of UCT and Stellenbosch University, both of whom are existing clients. While our physical base is Cape Town, we serve a national client base with translation projects across Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban.

Yes. The Western Cape provides official communication in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa, and many government websites, public documents and departmental communications are published in all three languages. Provincial departments, municipalities and organs of state operating in the Western Cape are expected to communicate in the languages of their communities. For PAIA manuals, public participation notices, tender documentation and community engagement materials, Afrikaans and isiXhosa translations are therefore a compliance requirement rather than an optional addition. A translation that meets these requirements must be produced by a first-language speaker with an academic qualification in their home language and relevant subject-matter experience, then passed through a print-ready quality control process. These are the conditions we apply as standard on every project. For a detailed breakdown of what compliant translation requires, see our pages on certified Afrikaans translation and certified isiXhosa translation.

Our Cape Town work concentrates in four areas that reflect the city's institutional character. Academic and educational translation is a significant part of our workload, covering research papers, curriculum materials, informed consent forms for university studies and textbooks for Western Cape schools. Medical and clinical research translation is another core area, with Cape Town's hospitals and research institutions requiring patient information leaflets, clinical trial documentation and health communications in Afrikaans and isiXhosa. Legal translation covers contracts, court documents, PAIA manuals and compliance materials for legal practices and corporate clients across the city. NGO and community communications represent a substantial share of our Cape Town projects, from community reports and public participation notices to outreach materials where accurate, accessible language has direct impact. We also handle website localisation for Cape Town-based organisations reaching Afrikaans and isiXhosa-speaking digital audiences.

If you have home language proficiency in any of South Africa's official languages you can visit our homepage in that language and assess the register, terminology and quality directly. For Cape Town clients the most relevant versions are Afrikaans and isiXhosa, but our site is also available in isiZulu, Sepedi, Setswana, Sesotho, Xitsonga, Siswati, Tshivenḓa and isiNdebele. Every localised homepage is a complete professional translation of our English site produced by our own linguists. Most translation agencies do not publish their work in the languages they claim to translate into. Beyond the website, every project we deliver has been translated by a subject-matter expert, independently proofread and run through our proprietary terminology checks. We issue certificates verifying the academic credentials and quality control compliance of the translators involved.

We confirm a firm delivery date only after the assigned translator has reviewed your files, which means when we commit to a deadline, we meet it. For standard projects, most clients receive completed translations within two to five business days depending on volume and complexity. For high-priority work, urgent translation with a 24-hour turnaround is available by prior arrangement. If you have a fixed deadline, state it clearly when you email your document and we will confirm availability immediately. We do not charge premium fees for faster turnarounds.

We handle a wide range of written content including legal documents (contracts, PAIA manuals, court submissions, lease agreements and company policies), medical and research materials (informed consent forms, participant information leaflets and clinical trial protocols), educational content (textbooks, research papers, curriculum materials and university communications), NGO and community documentation (community reports, public participation notices and outreach materials) and digital content (website localisation, app interfaces and e-learning modules). For technical projects we work directly in HTML, XML and CSV formats and can liaise with your web team on implementation. We do not translate personal documents for immigration purposes such as birth or marriage certificates.

Yes. While Afrikaans and isiXhosa are the primary languages for most Cape Town clients, we translate all 11 official South African languages nationally. Cape Town-based organisations with a national footprint regularly commission translations into isiZulu, Sepedi, Setswana, Sesotho, Xitsonga, Siswati, Tshivenḓa and Southern isiNdebele for national campaigns, compliance documentation and community engagement across all nine provinces. Our translators are based across South Africa and location is never a constraint on the languages we can deliver.