There’s a verb stem that seems, strangely, to be on everyone’s lips. It’s strange because the stem has, up until recently, only been used in religious or political contexts – but now it’s used to talk about a particularly virulent form of intergenerational transactional sex. Here’s a riddle for you – how are State Capture, […]
Tag: umbuso
On Wednesday, the report was made public. You must know which one I’m talking about – it’s all anyone can talk about. And while I’m interested in many aspects of it, for me the choice of language on uKhozi FM was… enlightening. You see, two weeks ago, the phrase for ‘state capture’ was ukugwamanqa kombuso. […]
It was with some surprise that I heard the news – uKhongolose is intending to charge Malema with treason. Surprise turned to curiosity (of course) about the linguistic aspects of the word. Treason. Firstly, the technical term for the charge (in Latin, of course) is maiestas. As a legal concept, it’s as old as the […]
uMabhengwane 