LET’S PRESERVE OUR MOTHER LANGUAGE

Sir,

I am a Swazi citizen of this country and I am happy to be born a Swazi, living in this peaceful country called Swaziland.

Despite that our country is peaceful; I have a lot to say. First we claim that our first language is siSwati and the second one is English but it seems as if we are contradicting ourselves.
The reason I say this is because we don’t have a siSwati newspaper yet we encourage people to speak it. We also have Sebenta National Institute which teaches people to read and write siSwati but there is nowhere they would read it from.

I am wondering if we are not depriving the citizenry their right of knowing what is happening around the world.
The Times of Swaziland tried to publish a siSwati newspaper but for some reasons it was shutdown. I might not be sure but was that due to the fact that it was not generating enough revenue or what?
Other than that, when going to all government offices, one finds forms which require to be filled in by Swazis yet most of them are written in English.

I sometimes ask myself why does’nt government doesn’t emulate the way the Constitution was written- in both languages. We are happy about that because no one can say he or she cannot read it.
We have heard people complaining about these forms more especially those from the SRA but nothing has been done up to today. Does that mean we look down upon ourselves as Swazis. Mr Editor, I am writing this letter in English not because I like to do so but I was forced by the absence of a siSwati newspaper and I found it very difficult to express myself in English.

I think our country is not for the educated only. My wish is that even those with lower education like me should be given a chance to enjoy reading a newspaper in their mother language. Let us promote our language!
In South Africa, there is an old newspaper called iLanga lase Natal. This newspaper is over 66 years old but it still exist but come to Swaziland, there is not even one siSwati newspaper.
It is time we own our language and we can afford to have our own ‘Lilanga.’ I am wondering why the Swazi Observer can’t publish a siSwati because it is an organisation supported by Tibiyo TakaNgwane. It is time government produced forms written in our mother language.

Adding on that, let us have a say or a platform where we can express our views Mr. Editor. Get me clear here. I am not talking about a platform for criticising or insulting government or other people but where we can make constructive contributions towards government’s service delivery. For example, it could be a platform where we could address the challenges we are facing as the public pertaining the introduction of the Ntjintja Set Top Boxes.
This thing is giving us problems and, we then continue viewing other channels provided by neighbouring countries’TV stations. The set top boxes are lying idle in our homes and if we want news, we switch on to SBIS or buy the Times of Swaziland.

Lastly, let me thank government for delivering development projects in some rural areas. The projects undertaken by SNTC and SWADE at some rural areas are making a big change to Swazi people.
The training officers from this two government departments are well trained and they know how to present themselves to elders of the community.

By Zeblon Dlamini
Ntondozi

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