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K-word OK in townships - Khoza
19/02/2008 22:52 - (SA)
Alet van Zyl, Beeld
Johannesburg - Irvin Khoza, chairperson of the Local Arrangements Committee (Lac) for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, was unrepentant on Tuesday about using the dreaded K-word.
Khoza says the word is still used regularly in the townships of South Africa.
He used it in a media conference on Monday, in relation to a newspaper reporter who phoned him on Sunday to check on rumours that he was at loggerheads with the executive chief of the Lac, Danny Jordaan. .
The reporter claimed to have read in a Sunday newspaper that the in-fighting related to tenders, but he couldn't say in which newspaper he had read this.
Khoza explained that he had said to the reporter: "Please Sir, (and I used a very strong word and I apologise immediately for repeating it) I told him, 'stop thinking like a kaffir'."
He used the word again, twice, during his explanation.
Khoza said on Tuesday that the consternation about his use of the word was totally unnecessary, since it was acceptable in the context in which he intended it.
"I know the word also has another meaning, but in the context in which I used it, it refers to dubious character and unreliability," said Khoza on Tuesday.
Khoza said he was tongue-lashing a black journalist and that the word was appropriate "for him to understand what I meant. He was being wilful".
Khoza said he was planning to submit a complaint to the general manager of the company that employs the journalist.
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