The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has apologised for an audio recording that caused outrage on social media claiming it did not originate from the party’s communications desk.
The 2-minute-long audio is of an unidentified woman who is articulating what seems like a CCC message to voters in bastardised Ndebele.
Social media users reacted angrily to the ‘offensive’ audio claiming the opposition party did not respect the Ndebele language.
The party’s deputy spokesperson Gift Ostallos Siziba told CITE in an interview on The Breakfast Club that the audio did not originate from the party.
“We say to those that were affected by that, genuinely from the deepest parts of our hearts as a movement, we apologise unreservedly. Lisixolele bakithi, ayisiyo yethu, ayiphumanga kithi (Please forgive us, we are not the originators of the audio recording),” said Siziba.
“Our official videos and content have a signature of our CCC official logo at the corner of every infographic that we develop.”
Siziba said as a movement they always deploy cadres who are conversant with a certain language to engage with people of a particular region.
“When you bastardise people’s language and culture you are stealing so much from them, you are depriving them,” he said.
Siziba added that the party were probing the source of the audio recording.
Several entities including companies and government departments have in the past faced similar criticism for crafting communication material containing wrongly spelt or offensive Ndebele words.
