Have you considered South African national anthem or flag?

Question

Do South African still remember the small big matter of a fan waving old SA flag at the closing ceremony of a rugby Test played against Wales. The Springbok captain John Smit admonished a fan. The skipper correctly pointed out to this gentleman that the Bokke knew who they were playing for and made his displeasure known. Nation building at its finest.

Contrast this with a story from the USA. At an annual State of the City address, Michael Hancock introduced singer Rene Marie to perform the national anthem. Instead, she performed the song “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” which is also known as the “black national anthem.” When she finished, the audience responded with mild applause. The national anthem was never performed.

Governor Bill Ritter tagged the incident as “inappropriate.” This has caused quite a stir (to put it mildly) in the city and the state. The singer, Marie, told 9NEWS she wanted to express her love of her country by mixing the lyrics of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” with the melody of the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

Was Marie simply expressing her feelings for the country she loves or was this very irresponsible? What about the fan waving old SA flag? Or let’s make it simplier - should we ever allow communities to revert to “Die Stem?” Would this be an expression of certain communities’ love of South Africa or seriously irresponsible? What about De La Rey or Lethu Mshini Wami?

Answer 1

There will be always diffrents of opinion cause we are diffrent

No white will like a black leader and no black will like a white leader you will respect him but like I don't think so ,we are still to far away for that to happen there is still to many narrow minded people black and white in this country and it will always be there  not you not me will be able to change that

and till you realise that it will be a hard path for all of us

Answer 2

We should design a new flag with none of the colours of the Appartheid era and NONE of Mkonto Sizwe or the ANC in it. It should be a neutral flag. I am proud of the old flag. I wish I can buy one somewhere. Do not confuse my loyalty for the old flag to me being loyal to the bad things that happened in the old South Africa. People get confused, they are simply told that ANYTHING and EVERYTHING pre 1994 is bad. Thinking like that would mean that even Madiba was bad. I do not like the new flag because just like EVERYTHING else in the NEW SOUTH AFRICA, it is designed and managed by the ANC and I hate the ANC.

The national anthem should be revised. The current combo sucks and when there is more black than white, Nkosi sikelele is the loudest and no-one says anything. When ther is more white people than black people, then DIE STEM is loudest with lots of condemnation from all over the ANC idiots.

We should make a neutral song that is about the country and not about the ANC or past our new anthem.

In short, we have nothing the binds us to loyalty for South Africa. We are now like the French in the second world war. They could not be trusted and even did not trust each other.

Answer 3

This is an interesting question. Proponents of the old flag feel that they are practising freedom of expression when they wave it around at national gatherings. While I concede that they have a right to do so, I feel it is insensitive and inappropriate. I believe freedom of expression also entails responsibilities and obligations, namely not to cause offense and not to make people uncomfortable. I get uncomfortable when i see the old flag, because I worry about how the world sees us, the citizens of this beautiful and special country. I worry about my fellow countrymen taking offense. I want us to be a country "in good standing" because we need the world's good opinion of us (like it or not) to ensure a prosperous future.  I feel the same way about "die Stem". As for De La Rey and the Machine Gun song, I find it hard to  say - are these expressions of particular cultural groups or indications of intolerance or hate? I don't know. I know our SA Minister of Arts and Culture (I think it was) at the time said the furore over the De La Rey song was unnecessary and that no harm was done. I think in the case of the incident in the US, I think the singer acted inappropriately - she was engaged after all do perform the national anthem, and if she wanted to sing something else, she should have said so beforehand. Imagine for arguments sake, what it would look like if a SA perfomer was appointed to sing the national anthem at the 2010 opening ceremony, and they started out with "Die Stem" or "de La rey"...breach of contract in my opinion.

Answer 4

Some people will sell out their own people just to play rugby, look at old Francios p***s-aar when we 'won' the world cup.