Elections 2024 have come and gone. As parties negotiated what our seventh administration would look like, Joleen Steyn Kotze reflected on the lighter side of researchers’ dedication to ensuring that the findings of the HSRC Election Satisfaction Survey were accessible to all South Africans.
Through the HSRC’s work on the Election Satisfaction Survey (ESS) and analysing key political trends and dynamics of the last 30 years of democracy, our researchers had a strong and notable presence in the media coverage of Elections ’24.
As with all elections since the late 1990s, the ESS provided important evidence that the Electoral Commission used to declare the 2024 election free and fair. Over the years, the HSRC has also conducted pre-election and other surveys on voter participation and motivation. The ESS is incredibly important as it speaks to South African perceptions of key measures of electoral integrity.
As always, we were committed to sharing our findings, analysis, and commentary so that it was accessible to all South Africans. This meant that our team, reflecting the beautiful and diverse linguistic tapestry that makes up our beautiful country, was prepared to converse in all South African languages. Our research team spoke isiZulu, isiXhosa, Tshivenda, Afrikaans, and many other languages as we engaged South Africans on the important and interesting insights of voter behaviour, psychosocial drivers that shape political action, and how they perceived Elections ‘24.
As researchers, we are passionate about sharing our findings and insights – but coming from diverse backgrounds, we often find ourselves in tricky linguistic situations. Some time ago, I was interviewed by an Afrikaans radio station. The conversation was insightful, focusing on corruption in South Africa under the then-Zuma administration. I could not find the Afrikaans word for “allegations”, and being slightly over-confident in my spoken Afrikaans, I threw out the word “allegasies”. The radio presenter, albeit somewhat shocked at this terrible anglicism, gently corrected the word to “beweringe”, and our conversation continued with a little chuckle and a lighter tone.
This experience made me aware of what I have termed my ‘Afrikaansixiety’ – a mix of anxiety and Afrikaans. As a qualitative researcher interested in human experience, I asked my colleagues if they also experienced this. Were they experiencing ‘isiZuluixiety’ or ‘Tshivendanxiety’, for example, when sharing our research with the public? I found a shared human experience of the ‘analyst’: we all shared the sentiment that speaking different languages at home, in shops, or on public transport is a lot different than when faced with the microphone or the camera. Our day-to-day professional language is English. It is difficult to translate our research jargon and terms into other South African languages, especially when we need to provide concise answers in limited time. We also want to be professional and avoid slang and colloquial terms. This desire naturally sets us up for some interesting and often funny linguistic errors, like my “allegasies” for allegations.
However, we also realise that language, especially mother-tongue communication, reflects different realities and consolidates social experiences across cultural lines. By communicating our research in different languages, we can share the social and human conditions and experiences that make up the social, cultural, working, relational, and communal lives of all South Africans.
In the future, if you hear us sharing our work (and me possibly throwing out another “allegasie”), have a little laugh with us, but listen and appreciate the work and findings we are sharing in your mother tongue. While we may be clumsy in our pronunciation or forget words, switching to English, we remain incredibly proud that we can share and communicate our research in all languages, for all South Africans to empower themselves with an understanding of our society, whether it be economic, social, political, or cultural.
Thirty years ago, this was not possible, and we are proud of how far we have come. We are committed to social science that makes a difference. In making this difference, we remain dedicated to communicating with South Africans in the languages of their homes and childhoods.
Author: Prof. Joleen Steyn Kotze, a chief research specialist in the Developmental, Capable and Ethical State Division of the HSRC
Podcasts: The results of the Election Satisfaction Survey in isiZulu and Afrikaans
Dr Ngqapheli Mchunu speaks isiZulu on Ukhozi FM
Prof. Joleen Steyn Kotze speaks Afrikaans in an interview on RSG Radio
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