F-word puts MP on the map

2010-02-24 23:10

Nando's were quick off the mark with this topical print ad.

Lizel Steenkamp

Cape Town - The word "fuck" has put DA MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard on the map.

Nando's has just launched an advertisement based on her faux pas in the National Assembly last week.

It is currently being circulated on the internet, and reads: "Dianne, there only one place where it's OK to use fowl language."

Thanks to the fiery MP, a new code has been created for the inflammatory word. It goes: "You can go and DKB (Dianne Kohler Barnard)" or "Do a Dianne".

Apparently this code is especially popular in the Free State, committee members said when Kohler-Barnard returned to parliament on Wednesday after her brief period of silence.

Wearing fire engine red

Dressed in fire engine red, one of her favourite colours, she sat down behind her laptop for an early morning meeting of the parliamentary portfolio committee on policy.

The DA and the speaker of the National Assembly suspended Kohler-Barnard for five parliamentary work days last Wednesday for saying "fuck " in Parliament.

At least Kohler-Barnard hasn't been completely unproductive during her "off time".

"Anyone who thinks I was putting my feet up doesn't know me at all. I never stopped [working]. I was on my computer and on the phone the entire time," she said on Wednesday.

She received more than 100 e-mails from people commenting on her foul language. The fiasco has made her one of the most infamous and well-known DA MPs.

No worries over apology

"Yes, of course I shouldn't have said that. But sometimes the pressure is so intense and the yelling and screaming so unbearable that you can't help but react. But I should have waited until I was outside [the National Assembly]."

Kohler-Barnard will apologise to parliament unconditionally next Tuesday afternoon when the National Assembly reconvenes.

She isn't having any sleepless nights about the apology.

"I'll stand up and read the sentence out loud. And that will be that."

- Die Burger