WeeklySA_AdminATTRIBUTION: Exploring the importance of context of this all-too familiar phenomenon…
By PHILIP VENTER
One of the critical characteristics of any language is also one of the most controversial: the use of swear words.
In South African culture, quite a few “usual suspects” come to mind. However, one can argue that no swear word comes close to being quite as obscene, controversial, impactful and recognisable as the infamous p-word.
This word, of course, is originally an Afrikaans word, referring to female genitalia – in a distasteful and offensive manner. While being translated and derived from other languages, like Dutch and English, one can argue that the word is distinctive in South African society, whether used in an Afrikaans conversation or even in another South African language, given the particularly vulgar meaning attributed to the word.
One can safely assume that the vast majority of South Africans have been party to a conversation such as depicted in the following example: A swears while speaking to B; B takes offence; B claims A is being abusive by swearing at B; A affirms that he merely swore while speaking to B, but did not exceptionally swear at B, and was therefore not being abusive. Sounds familiar, right?
In State v BL[i], the Court was also on this topic. In BL (supra), a decision from the Magistrates’ Court was referred to the High Court for automatic review. The Magistrates’ Court had found the accused guilty of contravention of a Court Order. The Court Order in question was a Protection Order issued in terms of the Domestic Violence Act, the provisions of which stipulated that the accused was ordered: “not to commit the following act(s) of domestic violence [-] threaten with violence or swear at the applicant and related persons.”
It was common cause that the accused used the aforementioned infamous p-word against the respondents. The accused testified that he merely said, “los my ma se p… se ding.” (leave my mother’s p… thing) when the respondents tried to turn his music down. Therefore, the accused’s admission was that while he did use the word, it was not in a way that insults explicitly or attempts to derogatorily describe the respondents – unlike, for example, should he have admitted to saying to one of the respondents: “you are a p…”.
The High Court found it problematic to declare that the mere utterance of the p-word amounted to abuse. The Court considered the grammatical context in which the p-word was used. The Court stated that while the p-word is used as an offensive word in the Afrikaans language, it is also used in a wide array of alternative ways, for instance, as a verb, noun or adjective.
In the matter at hand, the Court found that the p-word was used as an adjective that merely described the noun (music) in the sentence. The Court expressed that while using the p-word “would not suffice in respectful or sophisticated company”, it is not necessarily abusive.
The Court even went as far as referring to a 2019 doctoral dissertation of Warrick Moses[ii] wherein the word is described as being “synonymous with the working-class ‘coloured’ demographic of Cape Town”. The Court also referred to a cartoon publication of the satirist Zapiro, which humorously illustrated the commonplace use of the p-word in certain societies in South Africa (clearly with the words “ma se” preceding the same, as illustrated in said Zapiro cartoon).
Taking the aforesaid into account, the Court found that the use of the p-word by the accused as an adjective to describe music did not amount to abuse. The Court, therefore, acquitted the accused of the offence and overturned the Magistrates’ Court’s conviction.
Using some swear words in specific conversations should be discouraged. Of course, the use of a swear word as a noun towards a person, or as an adjective towards a person, may very well amount to abuse and even crimen injuria, which has no place in modern South African society. However, merely using a swear word is not necessarily illegal. As such, South Africans must consider the following when using any swear word: context and grammar.
* Philip Venter, the author of this article sourced from GoLegal, is an admitted attorney who is passionate about the law and specialises in Magistrate’s Court litigation, commercial cases
