It is hard to pinpoint an exact date as Dwayne Bailey, the founder, had been researching the topic for a few months before anything official happened. But Dwayne regards his presentation at an educational conference at UCT as the start of Translate.org.za.

At this conference a translated version of KOffice was presented. It was a simple demonstration with only visible text translated. It was only later with funding from The Shuttleworth Foundation that the first versions of KDE were in fact translated.

 

The fact that it was so easy to 'fake' a demonstration is one of the reasons why Dwayne is so suspicious of any demonstration of translated software. Choose what you want to show and you can avoid any untranslated text. The audience at UCT was aware of the faking for presentation purposes and Dwayne used it to demonstrate how difficult a computer is to use if you cannot use it in your mother tongue.

 

With the help of Obsidian Systems, Translate.org.za set up a website and began translating some of KDE. The Shuttleworth Foundation stepped in a few months later. Translate.org.za became an official Section 21 or non-profit organisation in 2002 just before the start of the Shuttleworth work.

 

And the rest, of course, is history...