The South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) at the North-West University (NWU) warmly congratulates its members and associates on their election and appointment to leadership and specialist roles in the Council of the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns (South African Academy for Science and Arts) and its Commission for Language Technology.

Among the newly appointed leaders is Prof. Tobie van Dyk, professor in applied linguistics the NWU and head of SADiLaR’s Higher Education Sector Support Programme (HESSP). Prof. van Dyk has been elected to the Akademie Council as one of four members from the humanities. He was subsequently also elected as deputy chairperson of the Council. His expertise spans academic literacy, language assessment, language planning, multilingualism, digital language resources and generative artificial intelligence (AI).

SADiLaR also congratulates Prof. Laurette Pretorius, an honorary fellow of SADiLaR, on being re-elected for a third term as a member of the council. She is one of four elected members from the natural sciences, and is a founding member and chair of the Akademie’s Commission for Language Technology, established in 2026. Prof. Pretorius is emeritus professor in computer science at the UNISA and extraordinary professor at Stellenbosch University. Her extensive expertise includes natural language processing and language technology towards the technological development of the resource-scarce languages of South Africa.

Prof. Menno van Zaanen, a professor in digital humanities at SADiLaR, Dr Friedel Wolff, SADiLaR’s technical manager, Dr Laurette Marais, SADiLaR’s former speech node (CSIR) manager, and Dr Febe de Wet, SADiLaR’s Scientific Advisory Committee member, were all appointed as expert members to the Akademie’s Commission for Language Technology in 2026. 

SADiLaR celebrates the recognition of its members and associates and their continued contribution to advancing language scholarship, digital language resources, language technology and multilingualism in South Africa.

We extend our warmest congratulations to all the newly elected and appointed members and wish them every success as they contribute to the continued development and advancement of Afrikaans as a part of South Africa’s broader multilingual knowledge landscape.

Read the full media statement here.

At the top from left are Prof. Tobie van Dyk, Prof. Laurette Pretorius and Dr Febe de Wet. At the bottom from left are Dr Laurette Marais, Dr Friedel Wolff and Prof. Menno van Zaanen.