The council's censure of Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng for her social media posts about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu and propagandist Hillel Neuer is out of step with contemporary understandings of linguistic context.

The recent sanctioning of Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng - distinguished South African physician and United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health - by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) for the alleged use of "inappropriate language" on social media against Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel propagandist Hillel Neuer, invites a deeper inquiry into the politics of language: who defines what is appropriate, who is disciplined for transgression, and how such disciplinary power is shaped by longstanding racialised assumptions, and who benefits from such actions.

My clinical encounters with elderly African men often reveal the complexity and richness of linguistic expression. Many arrive immaculately dressed - suits, polished shoes and Stetson hats - and speak with a quiet dignity. When responding to routine questions, some say to me, without any animus: "Doctor, there is fokol wrong with me." Fokol - a derivative of fuck all - is not deployed as a vulgarity but as a communicative shorthand. It reflects mode rather than malice, a linguistic rhythm rather than moral deviance. It is a reminder that language is not static; it is a living, evolving organism shaped by history, culture, power and sociality.

Linguistic evolution is constant and...