Judge nearly misjudges his Zulu
2006-05-09 07:55
Johannesburg - When Judge Willem van der Merwe started his ruling in Zulu in the Jacob Zuma trial at 09:00 on Monday morning, making legal history, he nearly told Zuma to "go to sleep" instead of to "sit down".
"You must understand that I cannot speak a word of Zulu. I decided to do the first part of my ruling in Zulu in a bid to inform Mr Zuma that I am sorry I cannot speak his language. I wanted to make a gesture," said the judge after the ruling.
"I asked one of the experienced translators in the High Court to help me. I gave him the English version of the sentences I wanted to say in Zulu and asked him to translate them.
"My pronounciation of Zulu is naturally poor, and the translator ordered me to practise a lot.
"When he listened to my speech for the first time, he changed it a bit, but when I got to the part of granting Zuma permission to sit down, he stopped me immediately."
"I had pronounced two words - ungahlala phansi - wrongly.
The art is in the pronunciation
The way I pronounced it, I would have told Zuma that he could go to sleep. When the words are pronounced quickly, they mean that he can sit down.
The part of the ruling in Zulu went as follows: "Mnumzane Moloi Y Ngibonga kakhulu ngawo wonke umsebenzi owenzileyo futhi obunzima. Isahlulelo sibhalwe ngesi ngisi. U mnumzame Zuma usizwa kahle kakhulu isingesi, akudingeki ukuthi ukhulume ngesiZulu."
(Mr Moloi - Thank you for your hard work. The ruling is in English. Mr Zuma has an excellent understanding of English and it will be unnecessary to translate anything into Zulu).
"Mnumzane Zuma - Isahlulelo sizoba side, ungahlala phansi, ngizosho kuwena uma kufanele usukume (Mr Zuma, the ruling is lengthy. You may remain seated. I will indicate to you if I want you to stand up)."
"Sizoqhubeka isahlulelo ngesi ngesi (The ruling will now continue in English.)"
The rest of the ruling was delivered in English.