Executive Director Multilingualism SA, Translator and Language Quality Controller Language Centre Stellenbosch University, Language Editor Independent Institute of Education and Sessional Teacher at the Department of Translation and Interpreting Wits University
Zama spent a better part of his worklife in the language environment; not less than 35 years to be precise. He entered this field through his employment at the Department of Justice - interpreting between English Afrikaans, IsiXhosa and Sesotho. During his career as a teacher he specialised in teaching English and Afrikaans at secondary school level. He later worked for a number of progressive law firms during the 1980s where he served as interpreter and client liaison clerk, interpreting between English, IsiXhosa, IsiZulu and Sesotho. He also had a stint at the then Independent Mediation Services of South Africa (IMSSA) where he interpreted between the languages mentioned earlier and from Sepedi and Setswana into English or Afrikaans.
In 1994 Zama joined Eskom as the first black language services practitioner on the company's language services team. He led the language services function of the company until his early retirement in January 2015.
One highlight of his career in Eskom is his ability to successfully pilot company language policies that incorporate the principles of multilingualism. The latest policy crafted in line with the Use of Official Languages Act was approved by the Executive Committee of the company in November 2014 and signed off by its Chief Executive Officer in the same month.
In 2009 he was awarded a certificate of recognition by the South African Translators' Institute (SATI) for putting his knowledge and expertise at the service of the Institute and the profession by acting as an adjudicator for the 2009 SATI Prize for Outstanding Service Translation.
As recently as in June 2015 Zama was tasked by the Western Cape Provincial Parliament to assess and produce a report on the quality of documents translated into IsiXhosa for the institution.
It may be worth to note that Zama served two terms on the Council of the Vaal University of Technology where he had opportunity to preside as chairperson of the Finance Committee, Investment Committee and the Building and Projects Committee.
