Poor spelling is racist
Note: This letter was published in the Daily News 3 September, 2009, especially for my Mum!
ANC Cllr Mthunzi Dlamini during yesterday’s sitting of the full eThekwini Council, berated er… someone, for a person’s title of “Mr” (or “Umnumzane” as he explained in isiZulu during his tirade) being omitted in an agenda item. He justified this by suggesting that it was omitted by whoever wrote it because the person in question, Mr Lucky Montana, the CEO of PRASA, was black and so not respected. He said it was racist.
I noted that later on in the agenda, an item referred to a lease being renewed for a “Sotirios Spetsiotis”, who was also the unfortunate victim of the abovementioned disrespectful omission of title. Cllr Dlamini did not, however, bring this dreaful injustice to our attention, so I felt it necessary to do so in this forum.
Thus, on behalf of the eThekwini Council, I would like to apologise to both Mr Montana and Mr Spetsiotis for this grand miscarriage of justice.
I would like all South Africans regardless of race to please be aware you should never again misspell someone’s name or omit their title for fear of having to claim asylum status in Canada.
