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'No time for polite words'

– Jackie Pienaar, Die Burger, 23 July 2002

Cape Town — It has not yet been established why the SABC refused to allow a crude word in an English Aids advertisement but in the same breath broadcast an Afrikaans advertisement containing just as crude a word.Furious viewers reacted lightning-quick when they heard on SABC2 that "Afrikaans children also 'naai' (vulgar Afrikaans word meaning "have sex"). The SABC only ruled the language improper and withdrew the advertisement after it was broadcast on Thursday evening and Friday morning.

In the said advertisement, satirist and Aids activist Pieter-Dirk Uys, encourages parents to talk openly to their children about sex. He is one of 10 prominent South Africans who have been approached by the organisation loveLife to make the advertisement.

He said on Tuesday that there was "terrible panic" when the word 'fuck' was used in his initial English message. It was then replaced with a less explicit message.

The SABC could not, however, explain on Tuesday why the same did not apply to the Afrikaans advertisement. Spokesperson Nalini Ramdhani said she could not reach the appropriate people for comment.

LoveLife had initially only planned to translate Uys's English message into Xhosa and Zulu, Uys said. They only decided on an Afrikaans version after he pointed out the necessity thereof.

His reaction on the questionable word: "The house is on fire. There's no time to find polite words." He had reached about 400 000 children with his one-man Aids campaign in the past two years, and found that "this is the language they understand, but don't necessarily use".

At schools he does not hesitate to use the same word. "The children fall off their chairs and squeal with pleasure. The teachers go pale. But everyone realises that I do not say it out of disrespect. That is the guise under which the virus lives," he said.

He is nevertheless very cautious not to hide his message "among all the ha-has".

Although the advertisement has been taken off the air, Uys is still happy that it had people talking. "The president does not care. The deputy president does not want to speak and the health minister cannot speak. So, we are sitting here without leadership. Aids will succeed where apartheid failed. It is the biggest disaster to ever strike South Africa."

LoveLife managing director Dave Harrison said that because of Uys's Aids campaign in schools, he had a different kind of connection with the children than most parents had. He reflected the things that he observed among them, and loveLife's entire approach was to share this with parents.

"That does not mean that we necessarily agree with what the young people are saying but in many cases this reflects their recklessness regarding sex. In many respects the word 'naai' reflects loveless sex, which is so much part of being an adolescent in our country.

"We know that half of all 16-year-olds are sexually active. Many are pressured into it by sexual partners, others do it for money or because of peer pressure. Half of all sexually active teens have had more than one sexual partner, a third have had three or more, and 10% have had 10 or more.

"We know this is what drives the pandemic in South Africa. We will not paint a pretty picture and use flowery language. It is not a nice word, but it is not a nice pattern."

His reaction on the withdrawal of the advertisement: "We respect the decision. It is the SABC's prerogative. We are in a partnership, but we understand that the SABC also has other interests."

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HIV & AIDS

articles from 2002