English Language To Be Refudiated
Johannesburg-Linguists, lexicographers and self-appointed purveyors of linguistic purity gathered late, Sunday 18 July, at an undisclosed location, south of the south-western semantic web, to admit to the tongue-that-terrorised-the-world-for-centuries, a lexeme even the staunchest colonialists, war-mongers and cultural chauvinists have historically neglected. English language users, including those of the British isles, have been strongly urged to place an aesthetically-compromising, perspective-narrowing cover across their dictionaries to mitigate any effects of the exclusion of the word,...
Read MoreLest we become caricatures of ourselves
In South Africa we’re swathing our cars in the national flag, wearing football jerseys to work, trying our damndest to look for some unique way to show off our patriotism. I am a Muslim. I am a South African. I have been blessed to never feel that these identities are irreconcilable. My Muslimness is entrenched in my South Africaness. My South Africaness is connected to my Muslimness. While the rest of the world squabbles over a woman’s right to wear the nikaab, in my neck of the woods, women in nikaab drive cars, work in banks, serve you in stores. And it’s never been anything to...
Read MoreTravel Diary: A fortnight in Saudi Arabia
1 April 2010 I am on board a Saudi Arabian airlines flight to Jeddah. It’s been five, long years since I touched my forehead to hallowed ground. While the churlish brat sitting behind me constantly kicks my seat and the woman sitting beside me, a nurse from Bloemfontein working at King Faisel Hospital has not volunteered more than those words, I am happy. In a little while, I will see the lights of Jeddah twinkling beneath me, I will be home. Labbaik. 2 April 2010 I was hardly in Jeddah above an hour before my passport was confiscated. We were whisked through immigration, no questions...
Read MoreSpeak ZA: Bloggers for a free press
Last week, shocking revelations concerning the activities of the ANC Youth League spokesperson Nyiko Floyd Shivambu came to the fore. According to a letter published in various news outlets, a complaint was laid by 19 political journalists with the Secretary General of the ANC, against Shivambu. This complaint letter detailed attempts by Shivambu to leak a dossier to certain journalists, purporting to expose the money laundering practices of Dumisani Lubisi, a journalist at the City Press. The letter also detailed the intimidation that followed when these journalists refused to publish these...
Read MoreAhoy Comrade Sipho, there is a Julius among us
Anything you say against Julius Malema to a security (van)guard, your manicurist or your little left toe is not going to be held against you. It’s not going to keep your bank balance ticking over either. Malema remains Malema, a terrifyingly unbridled voice, more persistent than a mosquito on a Highveld summer’s night. When we’ve tired of moaning about Zuma’s bed hopping, the cut of his suit and his wives’ business interests, there’s always Malema to be mocked at, crude insignia about his intelligence to be spat out and his latest statements to be tut tutted...
Read MoreHeresy, hypocrisy and hear-say
The M1 was its usual unmoving self as I trekked north to Pretoria last week. The monotony of the staccato traffic flow on our roads is these days only interrupted by a generous helping of over-zealous football themed marketing. There’s no escaping it folks. The World Cup, like an untimely Armageddon, is drawing precariously close. And if it does happen to fall short on any of its lofty objectives at least it’s united us all- in gridlock. My trip to Pretoria was however no footballing matter. A women’s forum from Laudium, a suburb to the west of the capital, had invited me to share my...
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