Let SA rise above the false narratives

We run the risk of being told who we are as a people if we are not bold enough about who we are and what our home is outside of narratives that are based on second-hand information.

This is my takeaway from the Washington meeting where President Cyril Ramaphosa and his delegation went with the aim of “resetting relations” between South Africa and US President Donald Trump.

The truth is, once someone is committed to misunderstanding you, to shifting dynamics in their favour, very little convincing will deter them from their misconceptions.

These fallacies serve an interest to their goal. It is intentional. It is never about misinformation but an end goal. This was broadcast for all and sundry to witness.

Say what we will, but the SA government was always going to speak to a brick wall that had created a fictitious story with inflated and false evidence to bolster its effect.

ALSO READ: Ramaphosa played the long game with Trump

The impressionable would have believed Potus, but those who are in the know, the ones with access to media and the internet, dared to dig deeper and call out the misinformation.

However, not everyone knew this and were left in disgust, thinking that people of colour seek to send white farmers to slaughterhouses as a hobby. We were painted in the ugliest of colours.

This encounter is a reminder that when we show no honour to the flag, for as long as we remain divided, others will tell not our stories but stories of who they have decided we are.

They will lie and serve to further divide us for their interests.

While AfriForum and the like seek to further advance their agenda through attacks on local legislation, roping in foreign countries on domestic squabbles, the likes of Potus gain traction at driving a deeper gap, slowly making our country seem undesirable.

ALSO READ: Trump meets Ramaphosa: Did we all watch the same show?

If you say it long enough, it is that impression that would find itself living rent-free in the mind of others.

As an optimist, I believe better days always come. That the worst is slowly clearing from our future and that dreams of the rainbow nation will come to be; that is my version of patriotism.

It is my hope and belief. It is similarly the hopes and dreams of those who spoke in unison and said: “This is our home and we will rise above the false narrative spoken of it.”

This was a test of patriotism in South Africa and we should rise to the occasion to stand for our flag while we flush out the negativities that plague us. But we correct while we build.