Experiencing South Africa

Fraud, Part of Everyday Life

Most people know that crime, like theft, muggings, murder, and rape, is a part of daily life in SA.  What we did not know was that fraud is also very prevalent here. A SA newspaper claims that 15-18% of professionals here have fraudulent certifications.

In December, a doctor from the Congo was discovered to be falsely registered to work as a neurosurgeon in SA.  He had worked at 2 private hospitals and opened a private practice before his credentials were finally questioned due to incompetence.   He was already banned from practicing in Botswana and Zimbabwe.  This man did not have any residency training and he was pretending to be a brain surgeon!  Last year 6 Nigerians were found to be fraudulently practicing as physicians as well.  The same Health Professionals Council of SA (HPCSA) that has allowed all these fraudulent people from developing countries to work as doctors is the same organization that has given us so much trouble and not registered us when we are fully trained doctors from a 1^st world country.

Most recently, the HPCSA has questioned the authenticity of our documents, including our passport.  It is a huge blow to your ego when someone questions everything from your identity to your education that has taken your entire life to accrue.  We have had to explain every document to them because they are obsessed with minutia - everything from the type of hospital stamp to the way our documents are notarized.  For example: our initial hospital documents had an embossed stamp, which was inadequate.  Then we had the documents re-couriered over with an ink stamp and gold seal, which apparently is still unacceptable. Nevertheless, they have agreed to register us to work if we get our documents notarized the South African way.  We hope and pray that this is all they need.  We appreciate all those who have been emailing, praying, and being supportive from afar. 

Zulus

Durban is located in the province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), which is home to the Zulus, one of the ethnic groups in SA.  Although the Zulu monarch does not have any official political power, he lives in KZN and receives a stipend from the government, similar to the royal family in the UK.

Zulu Drummers

Languages with Clicks

Most South Africans are multilingual. There are 11 official languages here and several of them have clicks.  Although English is the language of politics, economy, and the media, it only ranks 5^th out of languages spoken at home (only 8.2% of people).

The accent of the Indian South Africans has been the easiest for us to understand because English is the primary and only language spoken by most Indians.  We have probably had the most difficulty understanding the white Afrikaners’ accent.  Afrikaans has its roots in 17^th century Dutch.

In 2001, isiZulu was spoken by 23.8% of the population, making it the most common language spoken in the country; in the province where we live, KZN,  80.9% of the people speak it.  It is followed by isiXhosa at 17.6% and Afrikaans at 13.3%.

Zulu Dancers

The clicks come from the Khoi-San people who live predominantly in southern Africa.  Most people know them as ‘Bushmen,’ popularized by the 1980s movie, ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy.’ 15% of words in isiZulu and isiXhosa contain clicks.  The types of clicks are numerous and subtle.  Like tonal languages (such as Mandarin or Vietnamese), the differences are difficult for a non-native speaker to appreciate.  In Zulu, they are variously described as ‘a dental click’ (written as a ‘c,’ pronounced as a ‘tsk, tsk’ with the teeth), a ‘palatal click’ (written as a ‘q,’ pronounced like ‘a cork popping from a wine bottle’), a ‘lateral click’ (written as an ‘x,’ pronounced as ‘the clopping of horse hooves), etc.  IsiXhosa has even more variations.  Even the name of the people and their language, ‘Xhosa,’ starts with a click (try saying that out loud). 

As you can imagine, we have great difficulty making these sounds - without being laughed at or feeling like we are going to choke.  One of our construction workers goes by ‘Patrick’ in the city, but his Xhosa name is ‘Xatiana’; despite numerous attempts, we could not pronounce it correctly. Though these clicks are often ridiculed in the US, they are taken for granted by non-black South Africans; some Indians and whites can even manage them quite well.

Zulu Dancers

Zulu Basics
 

Sawubona                    Hello (one person).

Sanibonani                    Hello (many people).

Yebo                            Yes

Cha                              No

(Information from http://www.southafrica.info/about/people/language.htm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu_language.)

Story about Words

I was asking one our friends what South Africans called these small, green chiles I had.  She quickly said “joll-i-peen-nos.” I did not catch it initially because it was a multi-syllabic new word.  I asked again, and she said “joll-i-peen-no.” Then I saw Akbar smile and I realized it was her way of saying the Spanish word “jalapeño.”  There are no Spanish influences here, so of course the pronunciation would be different.

South African English Word                              American English Word

Robot                                                               Traffic Light

Boom                                                               Gate

Brinjal                                                              Eggplant

Boot                                                                 Car trunk

Bakkie (pronounced ‘buckey’)                         Pick-up truck

Theatre                                                            Operating room

Gynee                                                              Gynecologist

Packet                                                              Plastic grocery bag                              

Braai                                                                BBQ                                                   

Dagga                                                              Marijuana

SMS                                                                Text message

Serviette                                                           Napkin

South African Fact:

During apartheid, each race was assigned to a different neighborhood and beach.  Only the beaches for the whites had shark nets. 

Data from the University of Florida shows that there were 31 shark attacks from 1905 to 1990 between Cape Town and Port St Johns.  Although attacks have risen to 94 incidences from 1991 to 2010 due to human factors, SA still has fewer attacks than the US.