WHAT IS dungbeetle?

One of the most insidious forms of violence in South Africa is the daily assault on plain language. The perpetrators are all around us (they may even be us), and they range from humble bureaucrats in Bhisho to the president himself. dungbeetle is a website dedicated to recording the worst of those abuses. It is a celebration of gobbledygook, foggy language and people who use too many words.
We welcome contributions: send them to beetlestuff@gmail.com, giving a full source and date.

This is the sort of thing we are looking for:

• Gobbledygook: something that makes you think: “What on earth is that person saying?” An example from public enterprises minister Alec Erwin: “One does not reveal where a nuclear power plant is to be built because we still have to acquire the land, although we might have already done that.”
• Foggy language: virtually everything that comes from public service minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi – she of the “optimal alignment of vision between different initiatives” – and her department.
• And an example of too many words: “Domestos kills all known germs dead.”

We’re not looking for things that are simply silly, like politicians trying to defend themselves when they have crossed the floor, Gary Player explaining why his golf course in Burma was a humanitarian gesture, or the African Christian Democratic Party maintaining that "correctional spanking" is different from beating children. Though sometimes the line between silliness and bad language does blur.

dungbeetle doesn't mean to poke fun at people just because they are not using their first language, or when they are writing for specific audience, as might a medical researcher in an academic journal.

If you think you’ve been misquoted, or if you want to explain what you were trying to say, we'd love to hear from you. By phone: 021-936-2202. By email: beetlestuff@gmail.com. By post: c/o Plastics and Baking Mecca, 911 Voortrekker Street, Kuruman 8460. Please include a R100 note and a stamped, self-addressed envelope.