Cyril’s tense presents confusion

CONSIDER these sentences: “I am driving to town,” and: “I am driving to town tomorrow.” Oddly, the same basic form of words can mean the present and the future.

But it is so. The construction is called “the continuous present”. Which is confusing, since the present is continuously turning into the past. But one must not confuse words and things.

Of many examples, consider that of Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, one of the few ministers with any credibility left, explaining in Parliament the government’s response to the fiasco resulting from the new visa requirements.

Instead of a decision, we got an announcement of… a committee. “The government is setting up an interministerial committee to study the matter.”

Does that mean that the so-called IMC is being assembled or has been set up? The form of words invites confusion and ambiguity.

Although he was speaking over two months since the administrative confusion began and interministerial conflict broke out into the open, it is hard to determine the state of play.

At times, Ramaphosa implied the future, at others he indicated the present (using the phrase “as we speak”), but in the end he assured the nation that the committee will meet “shortly”.

Geoff Hughes is an emeritus professor, Wits University.