‘LEARN ZULU, YOU LAZY LOUTS’

That is an overdue plea from Ndumiso Ngcobo: “Ake nifunde isiZulu phela bovilavoco” (March 23) in a period when electioneering is made worse by our deliberate ignorance of each other’s culture, language to be specific.

With a loss of language comes a loss of identity. When people lose identity, they start building blocks to protect themselves. Ndumiso’s plea was a move towards nation-building. In a humorous but harmonious way, he appealed to our fellow non-Zulu-speaking “white” counterparts to make an effort to understand the language spoken by almost 80% of the population. We try to speak the Queen’s language without offending its custodians. Less do we expect our fellow South Africans to do the same. Such values could dismantle a lot of barriers. — S Mkhize, SA Transition Project I was a lone white woman standing in a queue in a crowded cellphone store in Sandton when a tall African woman in the adjacent queue became somewhat agitated about the dearth of service. She called out in Zulu to a man behind the counter, who inquired, also in Zulu, as to the nature of her problem. I recognised the Zulu word “sebenza” (work) in her response. I held up my phone and called out “mine doesn’t sebenza either”. Dead silence and stares. I shrugged my shoulders and said “Durban”, which elicited shrieks of laughter and spontaneous applause! — Chooky

Stevens I was really pleased to see your heading in isiZulu — without explanation! I wish there was more of this. Yes, English dominates but this is the New South Africa and balance is so necessary in our cultural melting pot. There is definitely not enough written in indigenous languages. — Marie-Louise