DUST off the tongs… Saturday is National Braai Day.
Of course, that statement alone risks a ‘necklacing’ for not being ‘politically correct’.
After all, Saturday is officially… National Heritage Day.
On the strength of the latter, some politicians will no doubt be tempted to buy buckets of Zinger Wings to lure a few party stalwarts to listen to another boring speech.
However, especially after the liberal dose of verbal diarrhoea from all sides during the recent local government elections, surely the vast majority of citizens would now rather tuck into some ‘shisa-nyama’ on Saturday, weather permitting?
This edition of the Herald is packed with notices of such events.
For once, politicians should only open their mouths to put a tasty bit of braai meat in rather than regurgitate tripe.
If one really wants to be fickle about one’s ‘heritage’, then ‘Rock Spiders’ can braai boerewors, ‘Krauts’ knackwurst, ‘Rooinekke/Souties’ bangers, ‘Porras’ piri piri chicken, ‘Frogs’… err, frogs, ‘Dagos’ spaghetti (although difficult to braai), ‘Paddies’ potatoes and ‘Charrous’ curried anything.
(After the drubbing the ‘Boks’ endured last Saturday, Kiwis can stuff their fruit down under where it hurts most.)
Ironically, Zulu and Xhosa people probably have the same tastes as the ‘Boere’ and just love meat in general. Maybe a ‘walkie-talkie’ or two for starters?
(NOTE: One has to be brave indeed to refer to ‘Zulus’ or ‘Xhosas’ by any other label for fear of being branded a racist. Understandably, they can be a bit tetchy as some tags of yesteryear are still too raw. So let’s just call them ‘bros’ to be on the safe side.)
Before anyone takes offence at any of the above, the true story is that no matter what our so-called ‘heritage’, if you live here in this beautiful country, you should be a proud ‘South African’… finish, klaar, kuphelile, finito, fermino, ende and ??.
We might not always ‘stem saam’, we don’t all look the same on the outside, we speak different languages, have different traditions/cultures and different tastes.
But, inside, we are all the same. We all love, laugh, cry and feel pain.
If it’s only for this one day, we should strive not to confuse politics with patriotism.
So, whoever you are and whatever you are doing this Saturday, celebrate our country – South Africa – which is so rich through its diversity.
Respect people for who they are and not for who you would like them to be.
We should all be able to laugh ‘with’ (and not ‘at’) each other.
HAVE YOUR SAY
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