A business deals IN certain products, not WITH them!

Bongo’s huge and colourful broadsheet of Saturday, January 30 had a story on Page 5 entitled, ‘Tanzanian firms secure deals to export tilapia’. In Para 3, the scribbler, purporting to report what was said by our ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ali Mwadini, writes:

“Mwadini was speaking with Tanzania (sic!) manufacturers and traders dealing WITH agricultural, livestock and FISHERIES products in Dar es Salaam…”

Tanzania is a noun, right? Now if you transform it to an adjective, you ought to say “Tanzanian”. And then fishery is a singular noun whose plural is “fisheries”. We don’t pluralise a noun-turned adjective. It means, our colleague should have written “…FISHERY (not fisheries) products…”

Furthermore, entrepreneurs don’t deal WITH this or that product; they deal IN this or that. Dealing with is another matter altogether. For instance, you deal WITH something/somebody it/he causes TROUBLE or PROBLEMS in your organisation.

In Para 4 of the same story, the scribbler writes: “He urged traders interested TO export honey to submit their company profiles at TanTrade.” Interested to export? Nope; we say, “interested IN EXPORTING”.

We go back to Saturday, January 23. On this day, Bongo’s senior-most broadsheet ran a story on Page 1 entitled, ‘New dawn for gold industry’. In this one, the scribbler, purporting to report on what was said by a senior official in the Ministry of Minerals, writes in Para 3:

“He said Mwanza Precious Metals Refinery Ltd, a joint venture of…will be ONE OF the best state-of-the-art REFINERY.”

One of the best refinery? Nope! When you say “one of the…” you are referring to one amongst MANY. It means, our colleague should report precisely what the official said about the joint venture, which is that, it will be“…ONE OF the best state-of-the-art REFINERIES.”

On Page 2 of the broadsheet, there is a story titled, ‘Court upholds 30-year jail term for armed robber’, in which the scribbler says in his intro:

“A resident of Musoma TOWNSHIP, Francis T, will remain behind bars for 30 years for ROBBING Sh13 million and a mobile phone…”

We have admonished our colleagues over the falsity of talking about robbing “things” but do they listen? The teacher in us tells us to repeat ourselves again and again, until everybody gets it right! Duh! So, we are saying it for the zillionth time:

We don’t rob PROPERTIES of persons; rather, we rob PERSONS of their properties. Criminals ROB institutions such as BANKS, not the cash they steal. But of course, thieves STEAL money, mobile phones, etc.

And, hey! Why relegate Musoma TOWN to a mere township?

In Para 10 of the same story, our scribbling colleague says: “Having SCANNING through the judgement of the trial court, the judge noted that…”

Careless mistake, this one! We aver that the scribbler meant to say, “AFTER scanning through…” or, “Having SCANNED through…”

On the back page, which carries sports pieces, there is a story titled, ‘Mapinduzi Cup fetches Sh496m”, and therein, the scribbler writes in his intro:

“The organisers of Mapinduzi Cup said yesterday that a total of Sh496,178,400 has been collected in the just-ended tournament as A gate collection.”

As a gate collection? No, sir! If we accept the indefinite article “a” before “gate collection”, it means we can also talk of one gate collection, two gate collections, etc. It is like we could freely talk of “a school fees”. No way!

We believe our colleague intended to say: “…total of Sh496,178,400 has been collected in the just-ended tournament AS GATE collections.”

In Para 2, the scribbler writes: “The tournament that drew nine teams…climaxed on January 13th at Amaan Stadium here and Young Africans clinched the COVETED after a 4–3 spot kick victory over their traditional rivals Simba.”

Coveted after? The reader is sure to ask: “…the coveted what?” We are certain our colleague meant to say, “…the coveted CUP” but he didn’t!

Ah, this treacherous language called English!