COLUMN: MIND YOUR LANGUAGE. “Braking news”: chopper ferrying zimbabwean tycoon crashes
DAR ES SALAAM: THE world is having to come to terms with the fact that the flamboyant Zimbabwean tycoon, Wicknell Chivayo, is no more. He perished in a helicopter crash together with his wife, two children, and two other people, on 30th September, 2026.
The person who wrote on this tragic event in a popular Kenyan social media outlet, was apparently in a hurry to convey the sad news when he titled his story: “BRAKING NEWS”. In journalism, sometimes it is advantageous to be the first to convey some hot news to the public.
Doing so draws a lot of attention and may translate into financial benefits. However, such news, or the reporting of such news is not referred to as “Braking News”, but rather, as “Breaking News”. Breaking news means current, urgent information about a newly happening or rapidly developing event that is broadcast or published immediately. This, many times, entails interrupting ongoing broadcasts.
In many cases, details of the event are preliminary and do change as new facts emerge and are verified. This kind of reporting is reserved for major emergencies, disasters, or critical updates. It should not be used for routine updates, but the need for speed, and for being ahead of everybody else, can lead reporters to share unverified or false details initially.
In the particular case of this story, the headline was apparently written in a hurry. It should have been: “Breaking News: A chopper ferrying Zimbabwean tycoon Wicknell Chivayo has crashed”. There is no doubt that Chivayo had plenty of money and other forms of wealth; and that he had his way of easily rubbing shoulders with the powers that be, in African countries.
May the deceased be blessed with peace, in the eternal world. Many many years ago when we started learning English in Standard Three, it never occurred to me that there would be people mixing up letters, for example, using “l” instead of “r” and vice versa. Yet, this happens quite often, as is exemplified in this news item written from Morogoro by a gentleman who partly identifies himself as ‘Creophace”.
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I bet, however, that his true name is “Cleophace”; “l” and not “r”. He narrates how happy he was to meet his “crass mate”, after the passage of so many years. “Crass mate”? Not on your life. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, “crass is an adjective that describes behavior, remarks, or attitudes that are extremely rude, insensitive, and lacking in refinement, intelligence, or care for other people’s feelings”.
Surely, that was not what Mr C was happy to meet after so many years. Does combining “crass” and “mate” help? Nope! “Crassmate” does not exist. So, we have, sadly, to change our “r” (in “crass”) into “l” and get “class” in the place of “crass”. However, we know, or we should know, that “class mate” is one, not two, words. A “classmate” is a member of the same class at a school, college, or university.
And please, do differentiate “classmate” from “schoolmate”. The latter is another student who attends the same school as you. Why do men tend to die earlier, compared to women? There is a writer who provides a long list of reasons; and has it that society has trained men to believe that a real man does not complain. Instead, he, among others: “walks like a slave”! Does a slave walk differently from any other person? This is highly unlikely.
When we talk of executing duties, we are referring to “working”, not “walking”. So, a real man, instead of showing weakness, decides to “work like a slave”, come what may. “Work like a slave” is an idiomatic expression that means “to work extremely hard, toil, or labour with intense, exhausting effort”.
This could shorten the life of a man who refuses to reduce his workload, or take a rest. Regular walking could be beneficial. A warm welcome to the month of October!
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