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90 Rachélle GautonIzwaini (2003:17), Laviosa (2003:107–109, 2004:15–16, 20–21), Maia (2002:27,2003a:30–31, 2003b); McEnery & Xiao (2007), Varantola (2002) and Zanettin(1998, 2002). However, this does not seem to be the case on the African continent,and particularly in South Africa. As far as could be ascertained, publishedliterature does not attest to the use of corpora in translator training at African(higher) education institutions, with the notable exception of Tiayon’s (2004) articleon the use of corpora in translation teaching and learning at the Universityof Buea, Cameroon. In South Africa too, higher education and other training institutionshave generally not yet incorporated the use of electronic text corporain their training curricula, particularly as far as translation into the African languages(including Afrikaans) are concerned. For example, Goussard-Kunz (2003)indicates that at the time of her study, translator training in the South AfricanDepartment of Defence’s African language translation facilitation course (ALTFC)followed contemporary trends in translator training, but without making use ofelectronic corpora in the training programme.An exception to the rule is the translation curriculum of the University ofPretoria (UP), where (in 2004) courses on the application of Human LanguageTechnology (HLT) in translation practice were established, focusing on inter aliathe use of corpora as translation resource, translator’s aid and translators’ tools,with specific reference to technical translation into the official SA languages. In thischapter, therefore, the intention is to present the translator training curriculum atthe University of Pretoria as a case study to show how corpora can be used successfullyin the training of African language translators, with particular referenceto translating into the South African Bantu languages.First, however, a brief overview needs to be given of the language situation inSouth Africa.2. The South African linguistic situationBefore the advent of the new democratic dispensation in South Africa in 1994,there were two official languages, namely Afrikaans and English. The variousBantu languages spoken in the country had no official status, except in the socalledbantustans that had no legitimacy outside of the apartheid context. Furthermore,by means of the so-called Bantu Education system, the apartheid regimeexploited and harnessed the SA Bantu languages as vehicles to entrench whitesupremacy, racial domination, oppression and discrimination and to attempt tocreate ethnic divisions between speakers of the various Bantu languages. As Oliver& Atmore (1972:261) put it so succinctly, the so-called Bantu Education Act of1953 “took African education out of missionary control, and made it an instrumentof government policy in reshaping men’s minds.” This policy eventually