Johannesburg – You’ve heard of the problems relating to the Africa Cup of Nations – little communication regarding ticketing, marketing and transport logistics. But at least you heard something.
For those of us covering the tournament, we returned from some press conferences without having heard a thing – thanks to the French language that appears to be the medium of instruction in these press conferences.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with media conferences being conducted in French. It remains one of the official Fifa languages, and in fact during World Cup 2010 players and coaches could address the press in Italian, French, German, Portuguese, and English.
But what’s strange in this Nations Cup is that there hasn’t been any sound translation at some of the official pre- and post-match briefings, with some of us having to rely on second or third parties to relate to us what was being said.
Last week in Rustenburg, following the match between Ivory Coast and Togo, French-speaking reporters burst into mirth when an interpreter apparently got horribly lost in translation.
Ivory Coast coach Sabri Lamouchi spoke, then the translator said something along these lines: “We knew this was going to be the easiest game.” As reporters who knew that Lamouchi hadn’t said that burst into laughter, the Elephants coach also moved to correct the interpreter.
Seated alongside Lamouchi at the podium was Kolo Toure, the Manchester City defender who, after being asked a question in French, was so kind to answer in French and then interrupt the said interpreter when he heard he was going to send out the wrong quotes. “Please, don’t worry,” Toure raised his hand as he cut off the translator. “I will speak,” he added before answering in English, much to our relief.
Toure, however, is one of a few officials and players willing to compromise and speak English.
This week, having left Johannesburg early to attend an official Ivory Coast pre-match press conference in Phokeng, we were shocked to find there was no translator. A Caf official who was chairing the press conference, Emmanuel Maradas, flatly refused to translate for us, even though he is fluent in English and had opened proceedings by introducing the players and the coach in both English and French.
“Sorry, there’s no translator. I’m not a translator. So we will carry on in French,” Maradas abruptly responded when someone asked for a translation.
Later, he told us that the reason he refused to translate was that it is the local organising committee’s (LOC) function to arrange interpreters. These interpreters have to be paid by the LOC, he added.
Another conversation with a journalist working for Caf revealed deep-lying problems between Caf and the LOC. “This LOC doesn’t listen to anyone. They pick up people from the street to translate, when this is a very difficult job. When you try to advise the LOC, they tell you this is the only country in Africa that’s hosted a World Cup,” he said.
In Durban, colleagues reported missing out on probably the story of the tournament, when Mali captain Seydou Keita stated he would pay the bonuses to his team-mates from his own pocket should they beat Bafana Bafana in Saturday’s quarter-final. Apparently, “some useless translator” – to use the exact words of one colleague – said something entirely different, leaving our colleagues bemused upon reading and hearing what Keita had actually said the following day.
We know that Caf has traditionally been Francophone, but with the Nations Cup hosted in an English-speaking country like SA, getting proper translators should have been a bare minimum requirement.
There’s just no way the French language isn’t going to dominate this tournament – it starts at the top. Last year at the final draw in Durban, Caf president Issa Hayatou addressed the event entirely in French, with no translation. Our president, sports minister and other high-profile people who work for the government which funded this tournament at the expense of the taxpayer did not hear a thing.We still have four French-speaking countries left in the tournament, and I dread the press conference that will follow the Burkina Faso-Togo quarter-final on Sunday, which I have to attend. Oh well, bonjour!
*Follow Matshe on Twitter @Nkareng