South Africa · Open market · Operating partnership
Access on this page: Signed: South African Sign Language — pending How this page is tested
This page in sign language
Signed end to end by a Deaf creator, credited by name. International Sign on the global site; your national sign language on your country page.
ally is a platform where creators make sign language, captions and audio description — and one API delivers it to any screen. We are looking for the partner who will build the South African operation with us.
Why we are looking for a partner
One partner video — spoken, captioned and signed by a creator we already work with. It is shared across every open-market page. We do not fake a local signer to look established here.
The people
South Africa's sign language is South African Sign Language (SASL), the country's twelfth official language since the Constitution Eighteenth Amendment was assented to on 19 July 2023. The Deaf Federation of South Africa first asked for it in 1996. The world learned why in 2013, when the interpreter at Nelson Mandela's memorial signed nothing.
In plain words
Below is who lives here and what reaches them. Every number on this page is a research seed, not an audited claim — we mark them, rather than publish numbers we cannot yet stand behind.
Why captions alone do not close this gap → Why sign language
The mandate
introduced 11 January 2023, approved by the National Assembly 2 May 2023, assented 19 July 2023: South African Sign Language added to section 6 as the twelfth official language.
the formal start of the official-language campaign.
the interpreter beside heads of state used no recognisable sign language; DeafSA called it 'a total mockery of the language' and said it had reported him to the ANC in 2012; DeafSA published an interpreter provision and regulation policy in 2015.
Obligated buyers: the state under section 6's duty to advance official languages, public broadcasters, and providers under the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act.
The gap
Official-language status arrived without a delivery system. There is still no national accreditation for SASL interpreters — DeafSA wrote its own policy in 2015 — and no broadcast quota for SASL comparable to Kenya's. Subtitles assume reading fluency in one of eleven written languages; SASL is the Deaf community's first. The status is the strongest on the continent; the supply is not.
What we bring
These are patterns, not promises — each one happened somewhere, and each carries its source. The place is abstracted because the pattern is what transposes.
Pattern
A replicable template: the ordinance language, the budget logic and the service behind it travel together. Any city can copy it.
Two city ordinances — one on healthcare accessibility, one on cinema accessibility — have passed first reading, with ally as technical partner.
Receipt: Parañaque City Council records
Pattern
The platform exists before the first contract. Buyers pay for a service, not for research.
ally's pre-operating research and development was supported by a national science research grant and a city government grant.
Receipt: company fact
Pattern
Real usage, real feedback, and the model for any school or district that wants signed content on what students already watch.
A telco-funded 2021 pilot brought the platform to a Deaf school community of about 800 users.
Receipt: company fact
We publish our signals — including the zeros — on the impact page.
The partnership
The structure is a licensed market operation, built with the local community. Terms are discussed directly.
The playbook
The partner
Operators with standing in accessibility, media, telecom, or government services. Deaf-led organisations and entrepreneurs are explicitly welcome — the best operator of an accessibility market may come from the community itself. Investors are welcome alongside an operator, or to introduce one.
Why now
The amendment is two years old and the state now owes SASL the promotion it owes every official language. Nothing yet defines what that looks like on a screen. A partner who arrives with SASL delivery and paid Deaf creators helps define it before a weaker default does.
Next step
Write to us — by form, by email, or with a signed or spoken video message. From there: an introductory call, an NDA, the South African market dossier, then terms.
Questions