WM ZA/Annual Report 2024-25
This report covers Wikimedia South Africa's activities for the financial year 2024-25 using funding from the 2024-25 annual grant provided by the Wikimedia Foundation. This covers the period from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025.
Chapter governance
[edit]Wikimedia South Africa elected a new board for the the year up to November 2025 in 1 October 2022 and elected a new board for the year up to 26 October 2024 on 18 November 2023.
Annual General Meeting
[edit]- see also: Wikimedia ZA AGM 2023
Chapter strategic retreat
[edit]- see also: Wikimedia ZA Retreat 2023
WMZA Administrator
[edit]- WMZA volunteers: Bobbyshabangu & Discott
Wikimedia South Africa has had a full time employee since March 2020 who performs all administrative and clerical duties in the Chapter as well as assistant volunteers on their project in logistical aspects of the projects Some of the changes and impact brought about bringing the administrator in the chapter has been to coordinate and manage activities including organising meetings, conferences, and other gatherings and taking minutes, Coordinating travel and accommodation, assist in planning and organising events, maintain chapter records, databases, and filing systems, assist with overseeing interns and doing other ad-hoc duties in the chapter.
Some of the project she helped managed include
Bobby Shabangu and Douglas Scott manages the administrator by way of having checking in meetings every Friday. Administrator's Work Plan can be viewed HERE.
Wikimedia ZA Internship Programme
[edit]Mid term activity report
[edit]This mid-term report covers the period from July to December 2023. Wikimeida South Africa divides its activities into two activity types: outreach and community support.
Outreach
[edit]Outreach activities are those that support and enhance the growth and awareness of Wikipedia and the free knowledge movement in Southern Africa.
Schools Afrikaans writing Competition
[edit]- WMZA volunteers: Oesjaar
<add photograph from awards> <put Deon's report here>
SWIP Phase 1
[edit]- WMZA volunteers: Bobbyshabangu & =
- see also: SADiLaR workshops 2023
In February 2023 WMZA was approached by SADiLaR with an exciting progect proposition. They suggested that we run a series of workshops with South African language translators, academics, and enthuasts in all of South Africa's Universities covering as many of South Africa's offical languages as possible. WMZA has a strong commitment to growing Wikipedia in South African languages. This presented its self as an excellent opportunity to do so at a time when most South African language Wikipedias are experiencing very slow growth.
Later on the South African Language Board also joined this project and it was renamed SADiLaR WIkipedia Pan-South Africa Language Board or SWIP.
- <mention how it become SWIP instead of SADiLaR>
- <project launch September - add link>
- <seminar in December - add link>
WISCom Retreat
[edit]
- WMZA volunteers: Bobbyshabangu
- See also: WISCom Retreat
WikiIndaba 2024
[edit]- WMZA volunteers: Bobbyshabangu
Community
[edit]Community support refer to chapter activities that support and strengthen the local Wiki editing volunteer community.
Meetups
[edit]
Offline Wikipedia Hackerthon
[edit]End of year report
[edit]This section details actives done by Wikimedia South Africa for the six month period starting 1 January 2025 until 30 June 2025.
Wikimedia South Africa 13th Anniversary Meetup
[edit]- WMZA volunteer leads: Bobbyshabangu, IngridThomson
Community Outreach
[edit]Community outreach activities have played a crucial role for Wikimedia ZA by helping us expand our reach, engage new contributors, and strengthen our local Wikimedia community. Our partners have been pivotal in these efforts, providing matching funding, resources such as space and internet access, and, most importantly, connecting us with audiences eager to learn and contribute.
Below outlines a list of outreach activities for Wikimedia ZA in the previous financial year:
The Afrikaans outreach
[edit]WMZA volunteers: Oesjaar
User Oesjaar has played a pivotal role in advancing the Afrikaans languages in South Africa. Through the support from the Chapter, he was able to increase the number of Afrikaans articles by way of running schools writing competition and doing edit workshops.
SWIP workshops
[edit]The SADiLaR-Wikipedia-PanSALB (SWiP) project represents a joint effort involving the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR), Wikipedia, and the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB). Its aim is to unite language communities, including university language departments and other linguistic organizations, in the promotion and celebration of South African languages. Additionally, the initiative seeks to inspire active engagement from these communities in enriching the content of Wikipedia with contributions from diverse linguistic perspectives
SWiP Workshops Completed:
Statistics
Wiki Loves South African Libraries aimed at bridging the gap that exists about Libraries on Wikipedia with a focus on South African Libraries. The campaign was intended to bring together libraries, librarians, library students creating visibility for libraries and their services, allowing South African libraries to tell their stories, and that of their communities through Wikipedia and its various sister projects. There is inadequate content about the various types of Libraries in South Africa on Wikipedia and the existing list of Libraries in South Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_libraries_in_South_Africa does not reflect all the public, academic, national, private, research libraries in South Africa. Very few South African libraries have articles on Wikipedia or are mentioned in articles about their towns or villages. The campaign ran from South African Library Week 2024 (18 - 24 March 2024) until South African Librarians' Day 2024 (10 July 2024). The #1lib1ref campaign was incorporated into the Wiki Loves South African Libraries campaign.
There was limited uptake as seen in the dashboard, but there was support from the
Community
[edit]Fiscal Sponsorship
[edit]Meetups
[edit]WMZA volunteers: IngridThomson, Bobbyshabangu
Cape Town:
Johannesburg:
Retreat
[edit]WMZA Volunteers Bobbyshabangu, michaelgraaf, IngridThomson, lefcentreright
AGM
[edit]The Chapters Annual General Meeting was hosted in person at the Catalyst Hotel in Sandton on the . The meeting also allowed for online participation for chapter members who could not participate in person.
The main objectives of the general meeting is to review the achievements for the previous year as well as to agree on and plan for the new year.
Link to the AGM minutes and recording can be located [Here]
WikiIndaba 2024
[edit]WMZA Volunteers Bobbyshabangu, discott, IngridThomson, Herschal Jackson (WMZA)
The WikiIndaba conference is not funded thought the annual grant but instead receives funding from the Conferences committee of the WMF.
Financial report
[edit]End of year
[edit]For the fully financial year period from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025. Budget # refers to the budget line item number as reflected in the budget.
| Budget # | Item | Budget (Rand) | Spent (Rand) | Unspent (Overspend) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Support African languages | 00.00 | 00.00 | (00.00) |
| 2 | Community diversity | 00.00 | 00.00 | 00.00 |
| 3 | Wiki Content Creation & Tech Development | 00.00 | 00.00 | 00.00 |
| 4 | Wiki Loves (Science, Plants, Africa) | 00.00 | 00.00 | 00.00 |
| 5 | Community building & health | 00.00 | 00.00 | 00.00 |
| 6 | WMF support & engagement | 00.00 | 0 | 00.00 |
| 7 | Wikimedia scholarships | 00.00 | 00.00 | 00.00 |
| 8 | Regional community development | 00.00 | 00.00 | 00.00 |
| 9 | Staff | 00.00 | 00.00 | 00.00 |
| 10 | Communications | 00.00 | 00.00 | 00.00 |
| Total (South African Rand) | 00.00 | 00.00 | 00.00 | |
| Total (US $)* | $00.00 | $00.00 | $00.00 |
* US$ value based on ZAR/US$ exchange rate of R18.4 for US$1 on the 16 March 2023.