Akukho “ukuhlanekezela” la. Lawa ngamazwi ngqo ashiwo yiSilo samabandla, uNgangezwe lakhe:
Ngicela uhulumeni asilekelele. Sekuyisikhathi sokuthi abantu banwaye izintwala zabo nathi sichobe ezethu. Eziphukwini zethu asikhiphe amazenze siwabeke elangeni aziqathakele. Siyacela ukuthi abantu bokufika bathathe imithwalo yabo bahambe. Nani ngesikhathi nisemazweni abo kusazatshalazwa nabalekelela ukuba bakhululeke ngiyakwazi lokho kodwa anikaze nilengise, nithengise lutho emazweni abo.
There is no “distorting of words” going on here. These are the exact words uttered by His Royal Highness:
I ask that the government help us. It’s now time that people scratch at their own fleas and we squash our own. Let us remove the fleas from our blankets and place them in the sun so that they drop off there. We ask that foreigners take their belongings and go. I know that when you all were in their countries while the struggled was going on you helped them that they might be free, but you all never hung out and sold anything in their countries.
I will leave you to interpret that. All I’m going to say is that when you start referring to people in the same way as izintwala/amazenze (common parasitic pests), it is the same road that leads to the violence perpetrated by various genocides around the world.
uMabhengwane 
One reply on “Okushiwo yiSilo ngabokufika / What the King said about immigrants”
Although iSilo never directly incites attacks against abantu bokufika, one can understand how his address got taken as license for the subsequent attacks. He used extremely strong imagery, and unless one took the time ukulalelisisa ukuthi belithini kahle-kahle, it could be easily translated as a a command to ‘get rid of those fleas’. It’s extremely sad.
On that note, kuyangimangaza ukubona ukuthi amagama awabaholi bethu besintu asanamadla – he spoke and people acted. Imagine, ke, if he had rather chosen to encourage us njengamaZulu to emulate the work-ethic and entrepreneurial spirit of our citizens of the continent of of “kwantu” (Africa).
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