THE English are stupid, unimaginative or have simply given up on the ownership of their language.

They might have created a wonderful language that has since been embraced by billions of people around the world - even by the Chinese - but they have neglected to contribute to its development to accommodate the rapidly changing linguistic environment and evolving world.

Take the word beneficiation, for example. The word sounds very English but, if truth be told, it was coined nowhere else than here in Mzansi to mean, according to the Oxford South African Concise Dictionary, "add value to raw materials, especially minerals, by processing them in the region where they originate, rather than exporting them".

The word made its debut at a 1993 oil and mineral resources conference in a speech by Tata Nelson Mandela. It has since become very much part of our lingua franca and is widely used in the minerals industry across the globe.

Last week Comrade Fikile "Fiks-It" Mbalula, Mzansi's best-known orator, who sometimes moonlights as Minister of Sports and Recreation, took over from where Mandela and others left off.

Mbalula, he of the "true-to-the-president's-marching-orders-we-hit-the-ground-running" infamy, added a new word to the English lexicon. This was during his dressing down of cricket officials and players in the wake of the acrimonious and bruising battle between beleaguered Cricket South Africa president Mtutuzeli Nyoka and its tough-as-a-tick and uncompromising chief executive officer Gerald Majola.

He said : "Government is concerned and shocked that on the eve of an important International Cricket Council calendar event, the sport of cricket in this country is in disarray. We should not defocus our team when on a towering mission like the ICC World Cup in a few weeks' time."

Guluva has scoured all the English dictionaries, including the Seffrican Inglish ones, but could not find the word defocus anywhere.

But, just like beneficiation, defocus sounds very English and is supposedly a verb possibly meaning "taking one's focus away from something or issue or, simply, taking one's eyes off the ball".

The Queen, the custodian of the English language, must be kicking her heels in Buckingham Palace for not thinking of such an "enriching" word first. And leaving it to some obscure politician from the dark continent of Africa to do the bidding for her.

Hardened criminals

The people or syndicates behind the production of fake Viagra pills with a street value of more than R6million confiscated at OR Tambo International Airport the other day must, if you like, be hardened criminals.

Viagra, which is said to have high potency to significantly enhance sexual performance in men with erectile dysfunction, is arguably - and not surprisingly - one of the most-sought after drugs on earth.

But the sex-wonder drug is only available on a doctor's prescription, hence the criminals' desperate bid to have it sold on the black market.

Considering the sophistication of such a criminal syndicate - it apparently even involves the Chinese underground - it will be extremely hard to hunt down the criminals behind this. But should they eventually be found, they must all be given not only long, but also stiff sentences. Only long years of hard labour will be appropriate, Guluva reckons.

• This is a column written by Bathathe Guluva. E-mail Guluva on: thatha.guluva@gmail.com