Durban - English-speaking eThekwini councillors might soon have to take Zulu lessons if they are to stay abreast of city developments.
That is if the wishes of new eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede are anything to go by.
Gumede, chairing her first executive committee meeting on Tuesday after her election last month, told councillors that Zulu-speaking councillors should be able to express their views in meetings without being stopped for interpretations. Their English-speaking counterparts would have to get a crash course in Zulu if they were not to be left behind.
Tuesday’s meeting was for the election of chairs of committees.
Addressing Speaker Lekgoa Mapena, Gumede said: “As this council we have approved our language policy... May we be assisted to make sure our mother tongue is encouraged. Even me as the mayor, sometimes I really love to use it.”
This was because not everyone knew how to speak English, including “our president” Jacob Zuma, she said.
“I feel really good when I use it (Zulu). Even in this exco... it must happen officially across the board, in all committees. For us, I don’t think it must get to a point where councillors request interpretations in committees, it must be a norm (that councillors speak Zulu),” she said.
“If I feel like I want to switch to isiZulu when speaking to (Heinz) De Boer (DA councillor), I can be able to do so; he must make it a point that he learns the language. We must really, really do this.”
She shot down DA provincial and eThekwini caucus leader Zwakele Mncwango when he tried to comment on matter, saying the topic had not been up for discussion but was a comment directed at Mapena.
Approached for comment, Mncwango said there was “nothing wrong with councillors speaking isiZulu in meetings” but bemoaned Gumede’s approach.
“IsiZulu is an official language. And I do understand that some of them (councillors) have a challenge expressing themselves in English,” he said. Where Gumede was wrong, he said, was to say those who did not understand Zulu must go and learn if they wanted to hear what had been said.
“The language policy says there must be an interpreter in meetings’,” he pointed out.
The aim of the of the policy was to “encourage and support citizens to learn official languages other than their own, which will assist in achieving and sustaining national unity and cultural diversity”.
The policy states English and Zulu are the council’s two “working languages” and may be used in “any debate and other proceedings of the council and its committees”.
However, during the sittings, the policy adds, “there should be provision for interpreting services into either of the working languages”.
“In the event of any member wishing to have the proceedings interpreted into a language other than the working languages, such member must give adequate notice of the need for interpretation to the chairperson of council or the relevant committee.”
Mdu Nkosi of the IFP considered Gumede’s statement to be “reckless” and “irresponsible”.
“We have English-speaking secretaries and other officials who all do not understand isiZulu. What happens to them?
“We need to be responsible as leaders, you just can’t utter such words,” he said.
Councillor Zama Sokhabase was elected as chairwoman of the Community Services committee; Barbara Fontein will chair the Governance and Human Resources committee; Sipho Kaunda, deputy mayor Fawzia Peer and Mondli Mthembu will chair the Economic Development and Planning, Security and Emergency Services committee and the Human Settlements and Infrastructure committees, respectively.
The Mercury