Outcry as ZBC News misspells Ndebele word

There has been a social media outcry after the state TV, ZBC, misspelt 'uGogo uMargarate Mahate vayadingwa'.

A Twitter user ‏@siemathe responded to the above screenshot which was posted on the microblogging platform saying: "basibulalela ulimi lwethu laba!!! yesterday sme1 wrote Vusisiwe instead of Busisiwe."

Another user, @thandimuringa, twitted: "complete disrespect but hey i was told its only 6% of the population so it doesn't matter!"

@tafadzwaJDube also twitted: "this is a national concern, making mockery of the 16 official languages enshrind in constitution..even lePasport hayi aaah kunzima"

This is not the first time Ndebele speakers have been up in arms against organisations and individuals who have made similar errors.

Back in 2011 a Shona speaker, Zwarayi Shumbayanetsa, was bashed at a funeral in Nkulumane 5 after saying 'ezibhubhileyo'.

In 2013 there was another public outcry after Esau Shingirayi Nhandara the Director of ZIMSEC strongly defended the use of dirty words such as "isifebe, ikhikhitha, omangumba and umsuzo" in a Grade 7 final examination paper.

In October this year there was also a public outcry after DELTA BEVERAGES downplayed accusations of deliberately mutilating the Ndebele language saying the incidence of misspelt names on some of its products were due to editing errors and was not limited to any particular language.

In June 2014 the maverick politician Job Sikhala said: "just like English which we learn from preschool, Shona and Ndebele must be given the same status in our curriculum. Despite having other minority languages, the three languages are the most spoken in our country and it will be beautiful for all Zimbabweans to speak them."