Introducing Kesego Mokgosi (visiting PhD Student) and Rebranding of the Marito Project to Mafoko

Introducing Kesego Mokgosi: Visiting PhD Researcher with the AI4D African Languages Lab

We’re delighted to welcome Kesego Mokgosi, a PhD student at the Technological University Dublin (Ireland), who will be spending time with us as part of the AI4D African Languages Lab, hosted by the Data Science for Social Impact (DSFSI) group at the University of Pretoria.

Kesego is a passionate innovator and problem solver from Botswana. He’s a self-taught full stack developer and AI enthusiast whose research spans Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Speech Synthesis, Conversational AI, Reinforcement Learning, Deep Learning, and Generative AI.

He is currently pursuing his PhD in Computer Science under the supervision of Dr. Robert Ross and Dr. Cathy Ennis, focusing on advancing methods in speech technologies and conversational AI for African contexts.

Before starting his PhD, Kesego served as Head of Technology at Xavier Africa, where he led Conversational AI architecture and developed cross-platform digital solutions for agency clients. He is also the founder of Anton Tech, which received the 2021 Botswana Innovation Fund grant to develop geospatial data solutions for detecting transboundary diseases. Kesego graduated with First Class Honours and as Valedictorian from both the University of Sunderland and Botswana Accountancy College in Computer Systems Engineering.

Kesego will be engaging with our teams in the Department of Computer Science and the broader DSFSI network to explore synergies in African speech and language technology.

Rebranding of the Marito Project to Mafoko: Advancing Open South African Language Resources

The Data Science for Social Impact (DSFSI) Research Group at the University of Pretoria (“the University”) has been engaged since 2022 in an initiative to collect, transform, and openly release South African language resources in machine-readable formats.

This work builds on existing public terminology resources and aligns with the University’s broader commitment to open-data research and the promotion of local languages.

To date, this project was informally referred to as “Marito.” Recently, it has come to the attention of the University that another initiative has also used this name.

To avoid any confusion, and in the spirit of transparency, the University has rebranded the project as Mafoko (Setswana for “words”). It is important to state that the Mafoko project is an independent initiative of DSFSI and the University of Pretoria, and reflects its ongoing commitment to making South African language resources openly available for research, teaching, and innovation.

We appreciate the collaboration and support received from stakeholders and remain focused on developing resources that serve the public good.

You can learn more about the project and access all Mafoko resources through the links below — and we’d love to hear how you’re using them:
🔗 Project website: https://www.dsfsi.co.za/za-mafoko/
📄 Preprint paper: https://www.arxiv.org/abs/2508.03529
💾 Resources on Hugging Face: https://huggingface.co/collections/dsfsi/za-mafoko-68de9ec6d815ef917f3ce908