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Chicken Slice succumbed to pressure and pulled down the billboard with misspelt words

Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter
HARARE fast food outlet, Chicken Slice, was yesterday forced to pull down one of its advertising displays at their new Bulawayo branch following an outcry from Bulawayo residents over misspelt basic isiNdebele words.

The food outlet opened its first restaurant in Bulawayo on Saturday but was immediately blasted by city residents over what they described as total disregard for the local language.

A display wall advert at the company’s outlet on 9th Avenue and Fort Street, which attracted a lot of attention from shoppers featured the words “Umkwenyana uqobo ubuya leChicken Slice’, which should have read “Umkhwenyana oqotho ubuya leChicken Slice.”

Loosely translated to English, the marketing message means “a good son-in-law brings Chicken Slice.”

While some people who took the debate to social networks thought Bulawayo residents were overreacting and blowing the issue out of proportion, most isiNdebele speaking people expressed concern that their language had been taken for granted, adding that the advert was meaningless in the Ndebele culture.

Chicken Slice marketing manager Bernadette Mutoko yesterday could not be drawn to reveal when the food outlet would put back the corrected version of the advert.

“I have nothing to say and I don’t know when we will put up the corrected billboard,” said Mutoko.

On Monday, she acknowledged the error, which she promised to rectify.

The Chicken Slice billboard is one of the many adverts that have sparked outrage among Ndebele speakers who felt their language is being deliberately destroyed and undermined.

Big companies such as Delta Beverages, mobile network providers NetOne and Telecel and some non-governmental organisations, have been forced to issue apologies and make corrections after misspelling Ndebele names and words on their promotional material.