{"id":9636,"date":"2012-04-04T15:51:15","date_gmt":"2012-04-04T13:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/lingua-franca-of-s-africas-mines-set-to-fade-slowly\/"},"modified":"2012-04-04T15:51:15","modified_gmt":"2012-04-04T13:51:15","slug":"lingua-franca-of-s-africas-mines-set-to-fade-slowly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/lingua-franca-of-s-africas-mines-set-to-fade-slowly\/","title":{"rendered":"Lingua franca of S.Africa’s mines set to fade slowly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Ed Stoddard<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

THEUNISSEN, South Africa, April 4<\/span> (Reuters) – In the bowels
\nof Gold Fields’ Beatrix mine in South Africa’s Free
\nState province, chief executive Nick Holland addresses the
\nworkers, congratulating them on having an injury-free month in
\ntheir shaft during March.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking English, his words are translated for the black
\nminers by Beatrix boss Ben Haumann into Fanagalo, the lingua
\nfranca of South Africa’s mines which is set to get phased out.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A pidgin mix of Zulu, other African languages, English and
\nAfrikaans, Fanagalo is not a recognized language and its small
\nvocabulary of around 2,000 words is largely limited to commands,
\nwith plenty of obscenities thrown in, according to experts and
\nthose who know the tongue.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

You will find dictionaries for it online but its name has no
\nagreed spelling. Some use Fanagalo, others Fanakalo.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Academics trace its roots to the sugarcane fields in the
\nZulu heartland and it then spread to the country’s mines, where
\nfor decades it has been used, giving workers from Mozambique,
\nLesotho and several South African ethnic groups a common tongue.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But companies like Gold Fields, the world’s fourth largest
\ngold miner, are looking to replace it with English or African
\nlanguages such as Xhosa for cultural and safety reasons.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Other South African miners are doing the same. Harmony Gold
\n has a policy to ensure all employees are English
\nliterate by 2015, which spokeswoman Marian van der Walt said
\n“implies phasing out Fanagalo.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Gold Fields has introduced a new policy to require its
\nnon-English speakers to start learning English and to require
\nEnglish and Afrikaans speakers to learn the most commonly spoken
\nAfrican language at the mine where they work.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ed Stoddard THEUNISSEN, South Africa, April 4 (Reuters) – In the bowels of Gold Fields’ Beatrix mine in South Africa’s Free State province, chief executive Nick Holland addresses the workers, congratulating them on having an injury-free month in their shaft during March. Speaking English, his words are translated for the black miners by Beatrix […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}