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Farce about Aids as SABC says no to 'naai'

– Ben Maclennan, Cape Times, 19 July 2002

The SABC has hauled an Afrikaans-language Aids awareness advertisement by acclaimed comedian Pieter-Dirk Uys off the air because it contains the word "naai".

"Naai" is the equivalent of the English "fuck" — and Uys says it is a "real word" and that the ban is "totally ridiculous".

"There's no time to be polite and vague about the dangers (of Aids)," he said on Friday, shortly after receiving news of the broadcaster's decision.

"You can't talk about the birds and the bees in 2002! How does a bird fuck a bee? Get to the point and speak a language the children understand.

"The house is on fire! Warn them! Urgently!" he said.

The public service ad was done as part of a loveLife campaign in which prominent South Africans — including former president Nelson Mandela — urge parents to talk openly to their children about sex.

SABC spokesperson Nalini Ramdhani confirmed the ad was canned "as a result of us reviewing it".

"It has been taken off because of the language," she said. "We've got to re-look at that: obviously we don't want to offend the viewers."

It would be replaced with other "suitable" loveLife ads, she said.

In the English version — which is still running — Uys says to parents: "Don't be polite about sex."

"I did an English one saying how does a bird fuck a bee, but they thought that was just unacceptable to English ears," he said.

The Afrikaans ad says: "Afrikaans people think HIV/Aids can't happen to 'our' people. They're wrong. Afrikaans children also fuck."

Uys said that when he presented his one-man Aids awareness shows in remote rural areas, children did not know what he was talking about when he spoke about "sex between men and women".

"When I say, it's about 'naai', they know exactly," he said.

loveLife said in a statement that Uys was known for his involvement in schools with his HIV presentation, which was a "gritty portrayal of real life".

"He has spoken to thousands of people across South Africa and that is why loveLife felt that we needed to give his experience a voice. He is reflecting a real slice of life of how sexuality is discussed in South Africa."

The organisation says half of all South Africans have had full penetrative sex by the time they are 16 years old, and that this is what is driving the HIV epidemic in the country.

This is not the first time that Uys' use of the word "naai" has led to controversy.

In the apartheid era, when government censors tried to stop him using it in his shows, he began making pointed references to former prime minister John Vorster's constituency of Nigel instead.

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HIV & AIDS

articles from 2002