Jou Ma Se...

The Daily Voice was in fine tabloid form late last week, spending all its considerable energy in going after a local government official named Blackman Ngoro who stupidly posted a meandering article on a website about why "Africans" are better than "coloureds," which is the term here for people of mixed heritage. The newspaper even pulled out an extremly vulgar Afrikaans insult and ran 75 percent of it on the front cover, but more on that in a minute.

As an outsider, I will always marvel at the fact that there is ongoing tension between South African blacks and coloureds even now, eleven years after democracy arrived in this country. But tension there is, especially here in Cape Town. This corner of the country is the only place that isn't composed of a majority of black people. Instead, it has a coloured majority, which has a distinct culture and cuisine. And, by the looks of the Daily Voice this week, some people here are really mad.

Here's an excerpt of what got them so angry, from Thursday's paper:

The mayor's toy boy media advisor has launched a stinging attack against coloureds.

The R500 000-a-year [about $80,000] spin doctor labels coloured people as rude drunkards who cling to apartheid with the help of cheap wine.

Blackman Ngoro further says "Africans" are culturally superior.

He says coloured families raise their laaties to hate blacks. And he warns that it they don't accept black rule, they will die a drunken death.

Ngoro made the shocking statements, littered with grammatical errors, in an article on the Internet.

And he only refers to blacks as "African," ignoring the fact that coloureds, whites and Indians are born in Africa too, making them as African as Nelson Mandela or himself.

The South African Human Rights Commission has slammed the article as "harmful and undesirable."...

The headline on the front page was "Jou Ma Se..."

Katie and I asked around about this, and it turns out that it's most of a common Afrikaans vulgarity. When we brought it up to a group of South Africans on Saturday night, we didn't even have to remember what the headline was before they jumped in with their guess. Not that they read the Daily Voice. Katie and I are the only ones we know who make it part of our weekday routine.

In any case, the part of the insult the paper printed translates into "Your Mother's..."

I leave the rest to your imagination.

But the story didn't end there. The next day, Friday, the Daily Voice came back with another front page attack, and followed up with three more pages of coverage inside. The headline was "Ngoro is a Dumb Ass." Click here for a larger view of the spread.

The Daily Voice has tried to give the mayor's racist spin doctor Blackman Ngoro a taste of coloured culture.

We delivered a polony gatsby [a locally invented sandwich] to the mayor's toyboy media advisor yesterday.

And to help display the best that coloured culture has to offer, the klopse were on hand.

They were carrying posters reading "Jou ma se.." -- another important part of Cape Flats culture, according to Ngoro.

But Ngoro refused to come down to collect his tasty offering.

The security guards promised Ngoro would receive it.

And while the cultural offering was under way, coloured staff members in Mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo's office were venting their anger at Ngoro.

They are pissed off at being called drunks and inferior to black people in an article written by her R500 000-a-year spin doctor...

I'm off to buy today's paper in a minute. I suspect this story isn't over.