News / Press Release
ZESN Newsletters should respect Ndebele language
03 Nov 2014 at 08:17hrs | Views
Christians For Social Justice is calling on the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) to show respect of the Ndebele language by immediately refraining from deliberately using wrong Ndebele language in its newsletter 'Ballot Update Bulletin'.
ZESN periodically publishes a four paged Ballot Update Bulletin which gives vital information on electoral issues and processes. This bulletin is published in three languages, English, Shona and IsiNdebele. However, despite the organization claiming to have one of its major objectives being to 'effectively gather, disseminate and communicate objective information about elections and other democratic processes' and some of its core values being 'mutual respect and tolerance, respect for human rights and non discrimination' we observe with concern that when it comes to the Ndebele section of their bulletin, the NGO has been for long been consistently effectively misspelling Ndebele words or using totally grammatically erroneous statements. An analysis of just the headings of the Ndebele section of the bulletin have proved gross disrespect for both the Ndebele language, the Ndebele speaking people and the rights to information and linguistic rights for the Ndebele people. This if further perpetuated in the actual stories where the Ndebele used is at-times catastrophic and diabolic to say list, despite the fact that ZESN has some organizational colleagues and staff members/coordinators from Matabeleland who are fluent and conversant in Ndebele.
What riles the situation is that these consistent language violations are consistent with the Ndebele section of the Bulletin not with the Shona or English Section.
Cases in point of these violations are evident on the Bulletins of 17 July 2013, 26 May 2014, 27 June 2014, and more excruciatingly on the Issue of 30 September 2014 for instance.
If ZESN is not doing this on purpose, we call on the organization to:
1. Show respect for the Ndebele language and the Ndebele people by immediately refraining from using wrong Ndebele in their Ballot Update Bulletin;
2. Issue an official statement apologizing to the Ndebele language speakers for this consistent violation of their language and cultural rights, if the organization is really sincere with its values of non – discrimination, respect for human rights and mutual respect;
3. Respond to this statement within 7 days with clear and conscience explanations to this gross human rights violations issue;
4. In future to ensure that in all its bulletins due diligence is done to uphold the linguistic and cultural rights of Ndebele language speakers as enshrined in the constitution of Zimbabwe and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Linguistic, Ethnic and Religious Minorities among other such legal instruments.
We hope to see action soon regarding this issue from ZESN.
ZESN periodically publishes a four paged Ballot Update Bulletin which gives vital information on electoral issues and processes. This bulletin is published in three languages, English, Shona and IsiNdebele. However, despite the organization claiming to have one of its major objectives being to 'effectively gather, disseminate and communicate objective information about elections and other democratic processes' and some of its core values being 'mutual respect and tolerance, respect for human rights and non discrimination' we observe with concern that when it comes to the Ndebele section of their bulletin, the NGO has been for long been consistently effectively misspelling Ndebele words or using totally grammatically erroneous statements. An analysis of just the headings of the Ndebele section of the bulletin have proved gross disrespect for both the Ndebele language, the Ndebele speaking people and the rights to information and linguistic rights for the Ndebele people. This if further perpetuated in the actual stories where the Ndebele used is at-times catastrophic and diabolic to say list, despite the fact that ZESN has some organizational colleagues and staff members/coordinators from Matabeleland who are fluent and conversant in Ndebele.
What riles the situation is that these consistent language violations are consistent with the Ndebele section of the Bulletin not with the Shona or English Section.
Cases in point of these violations are evident on the Bulletins of 17 July 2013, 26 May 2014, 27 June 2014, and more excruciatingly on the Issue of 30 September 2014 for instance.
If ZESN is not doing this on purpose, we call on the organization to:
1. Show respect for the Ndebele language and the Ndebele people by immediately refraining from using wrong Ndebele in their Ballot Update Bulletin;
2. Issue an official statement apologizing to the Ndebele language speakers for this consistent violation of their language and cultural rights, if the organization is really sincere with its values of non – discrimination, respect for human rights and mutual respect;
3. Respond to this statement within 7 days with clear and conscience explanations to this gross human rights violations issue;
4. In future to ensure that in all its bulletins due diligence is done to uphold the linguistic and cultural rights of Ndebele language speakers as enshrined in the constitution of Zimbabwe and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Linguistic, Ethnic and Religious Minorities among other such legal instruments.
We hope to see action soon regarding this issue from ZESN.
Source - Christians For Social Justice
