Both speak to ICT Infrastructure, Governance but do not make specific mention of capacity
building and development of localised resources across sectors in Zimbabwe. There is no
mention of development of language for the neither the disabled community nor people who
speak, read and write languages other than English.

Politics of localization of the internet/information
There was frosty diplomatic relations between the country and Western countries between the
periods of 2000-2004/6, when the push for land reform was at its peak. Professor Jonathan
Moyo, the then Minster of Information and Media made efforts to encourage localized
content. The policy around 75% local music content comes to mind.
For some scholars, however, the notion of ‘Zimbabwean culture’ and ‘national identity’
projected by the government was ‘exclusive’ and ‘selective’ rather than inclusive (Chiumbu
2004: 32
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261575535_Between_Globalisation_And_Localisation_Contradictory_Impacts_of_the_SeventyFive_Per_Cent_Local_Content_on_the_Music_Industry_in_Zimbabwe [accessed Sep 20, 2017].

Language
The dominant language found in the bulk of our local resources and information is English.
Where there are resources in vernacular languages, its dominantly Shona and Ndebele, and
mostly offline. Most government platforms have their resources in English. Zimbabwe has 16
different languages but the business and education language is English. Not much effort has
been made to make resources available in a format usable by the disabled community.
Dominance of some languages over others
Chinese, French, English, Portuguese; Japanese are more dominant, easily acceptable
languages of communication the world over for business and education.
In Zimbabwe, the dominant languages are English, Shona and Ndebele, but this is not
reflected online.
Thoughts about localisation so far:
Google, Facebook translations- Localisation in the online space stopped at some point. The
most widely known effort to translate was the Google search engine, however, the dynamic
nature of technology means we have fallen behind. Terms such as Encryption; Connected;
Tether; Bluetooth; WiFi do not have translation Facebook translation platform?? Is this
legitimate or a form of malware or an open source application?
Languages spoken on platforms Facebook vs. Twitter- you find that there are groups of
people that will communicate on these platforms in English and some that better express
themselves in vernacular. Indication of a need for platforms to be contextualised and made
relevant to various groups of people, some groups have indicated that platforms such as
Twitter is elitist, my thoughts are it’s a failure to comprehend and understand how the
platform works as they are not intuitive enough to adapt to varying groups of people.

Localising access in Zimbabwe- Chido Musodza

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