Jessie Duarte goois Naam

There’s nothing like a bit of controversy to rile up the masses. And nothing like gooi’ing naam to make them laugh.

“Gooi naam” is an Afrikaans term for when somebody embarrasses themselves. Literally it means to throw your name, but idiomatically it’s similar to tarnishing your reputation – being Afrikaans though, it’s colourful and descriptive.

It’s almost like there’s a competition amongst many politicians in this election to see who can gooi naam the furthest. It’s purely measured on distance, as often gooi’ing naam lacks style completely.

The latest entry, and clearly ahead of her rivals, is Jessie Duarte in an epic rant against a reporter from the TheTimes.co.za. How dare they ask questions!?

Jessie Paints a picture of how it’s gonna be

For the uninitiated, Jessie Duarte is the spokesperson of the ANC’s president – Jacob Zuma. I see a tough time ahead for media outlets who don’t outright worship the ANC and the Big JZ if this, and a few other responses to media recently, is anything to go by.

A bit of background on this clip: The ANC has been quite active on-line in this campaign – the South African equivalent of Obama’s onslaught, save for the fact that a very tiny percentage of South Africa’s voting public actually has regular Internet access.

In a bid to bring an interesting story to his readers, the journalist phones up the ANC’s Jessie Duarte for comment and insight. He asks a few questions, but it’s clear from the get-go that Jessie Duarte arbours nothing but ill feelings toward the journo’s newspaper.

The interview is cold but amicable until the journo asks if Zuma reads his own blog, meaning whether or not Jacob Zuma is actually involved in / aware of feedback to / from his readers. Clouded by her obvious animosity towards The Times she seemingly misses where he says “his own blog” and launches into a tirade against the journalist asking if Zuma can read.

I know where you’re coming from and I know where you’re going

She then makes a bold statement, and as the spokesperson for the president of the ANC she makes this statement for more than just herself, when she tells the journalist “if you weren’t black I would call you racist”. It doesn’t stop there though, listen for yourself…

[soundbite width="410" height="30" addy="http://www.1earthadventures.com/wp-content/mp3player/xspf_player_slim.swf?playlist_url=/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/play-jessie.xspf&player_title=Click%20Play%20to%20hear%20Jessie%20Rant"]
Or try this link if the above doesn’t work (2.5mb file)

This soundbite (borrowed from TheTimes.co.za and reduced in size, because the SA servers are quite slow from outside SA), has wider ramifications than just a PR person having a bad day.

But read David Fleminger’s Humble Opinion. He’s also a TheTimes.co.za reporter and has undoubtedly much more insight then I.