No Speak Xhosa, No Speak Eengleesh

Afrikaans-speaking Elizabeth Best could speak no Xhosa, and her Xhosa char Linda Mpande could speak no Afrikaans, but they managed to get on in broken English – until the char handed Mrs Best an electronic organ keyboard for safekeeping.

Ms Best told Commissioner Louis Conradie that Ms Mpande later asked her to sell it for her for R700, but accepted R450 for it.

Ms Mpande, claiming from Ms Best the R990 she'd paid for the keyboard, insisted there'd never been any talk of selling it.

Ms Best told the court: “I only tried to help her, I did not do her in and never kept a cent for myself. There was a misunderstanding – I thought she needed money to go to the Transkei."

Ms Best said the misunderstanding could have been avoided when they'd discussed the original R700 asking price, but Ms Mpande replied: "That's not true ... it's not like that ... there was no talk of selling."

Ms Mpande added: "There was no communication breakdown ... she always spoke English to me, and I understood."

Alas, the Small Claims Court did not have a magic wand to restore the instrument to Ms Mpande, and the commissioner said she was now, at best, only entitled to its market value.

Mr Conradie said the R450 that Ms Best had obtained for it was the only indication the court had of its value, and he had to accept this as the amount of Ms Mpande's loss.

But the law did not allow double compensation and, because she'd already received the R450, Ms Mpande's claim for more had to be dismissed.

Alas, an unhappy Ms Mpande was too angry to understand, and stormed out of the courtroom loudly wailing her plight – first to startled people seated in the corridor, then to security staff who calmed her.