Iain Buchanan was uncharacteristically unSouth African when I asked him in February if the Springboks would win the Rugby World Cup.
No, man!
Well, Iain and the gang will be breaking out the Cape white wine.
With ice, like they do in South Africa, today in the Mount Camdeboo Game Reserve https://newmarkhotels.com/places/reserves/mount-camdeboo/.
Iain was more definite and enthused when asked about what Nelson Mandela had done for South Africa… What’s new pussycat?
‘A great man, a great man.’
You can’t separate the Rainbow Nation and the modern Springboks story. Nor should you.
And I somehow think that Mandela will be smiling broadly up there today for Siya Kolisi.
The boy from the Port Elizabeth township.
Which I visited on that same trip to PE and the Eastern Cape… Day in the life of a township and https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/home/whats-new-pussycat/.
And had a braai (a South African barbecue) in the type of shebeen Kolisi referenced in his victory speech.
Where I met a resistance fighter, Xhanti, who now spends his weekends on a golf course until recently a whites preserve.
Growing up and watching from afar you couldn’t support South African sportsmen because of apartheid.
Now it’s hard not to.
And today as Kolisi testified they will be celebrating as much in the townships as on the farms.
MEET YOU AT THE BRAAI
And some important websites: www.southafrica.net/meetyoursouthafrica.
And www.southafrica.net.
2 thoughts on “South Africa’s prize boy from the township”