By A Correspondent- Mr Nqobani Sithole a lawyer based in Bulawayo is suing the registrar-general(RG)’s office in his personal capacity for misspellings and errors in words and phrases written in Ndebele in the Zimbabwean passport.
In the papers filed by Sithole at the High court which cites the RG as a respondent, he attributed the errors and misspellings to the RG’s offices.
In his founding affidavit, Sithole stated that:
I am a Zimbabwean citizen and entitled to a number of rights and freedoms including the freedom of movement and residence as set out in section 66 (1) (c) of the Constitution, which encompasses the right to have a passport.
The same Constitution in section 6 (3) (a) guarantees every person’s right to the use of a language of one’s choice.
I am a native speaker of IsiNdebele language, which does not only define my culture, but millions of others in Zimbabwe
I am very worried that a trend has developed in Zimbabwe about a seemingly determined effort to decimate, mutilate and generally treat with disdain my language IsiNdebele by the Registrar-General. Recently, police did the same when social media was awash with pictures of a sign post at Magwegwe Police Station showing Magwegwe written as Magwegewe
The single word ‘kayikhululi’ has been wrongly split to appear as if there are two separate words kayi khululi. On pages 46, 47 and 48, in paragraph two after the header of page, the IsiNdebele word ‘akuvunyelwa’ has been wrongly written ‘akuvhunyelwa.
On pages 46, 47 and 48, in paragraph two in line two (after the header to the page, the IsiNdebele word ‘kwalokho’ has been wrongly written as ‘kwaloko.
According to the publication here are some of the words and phrases in the passport that must be corrected by the Registra general’s office:
Some of the phrases that he is challenging include: “Ukuthathelwa labo ababe belayo”, which he wants substituted with “ukuthathelwa lowo ozabe elayo.”
Mr Sithole said the words “okunga fanelanga” must be replaced with a single word “okungafanelanga” with “we pasipoti” being substituted with “wephasipoti.” He argued that the word “ivhiza” was not proper and should be replaced with “iviza” and “ukuphatwa” with “ukuphathwa.”
Other words that Mr Sithole wants corrected are “emphahleni” which he said should read “empahleni”, “kwaloko” should be substituted with “kwalokho.”
He said “isidhindo” should be substituted with “isidindo” and “epejini” with “ephejini.”
The registr-general’s office is yet to respond. Meanwhile the registra general is on suspension on alleged abuse of office charges.-statemedia