This is my South Africa. This is my home. This is a place worth fighting for

My South Africa is about its incredible people, the sights, sounds, music, smells and tastes. The stuff you only find here and nowhere else.

My South African is about a new democracy still struggling to find its feet and its voice. The heroes of the past and the activists of the present. The builders, not the breakers.

My South Africa is abundantly rich under the soil and above it. In minerals, in resources, in spaces and places, in fertile land. In people. The stuff the world wants and that we have.

My South Africa is about kindness, warmth, ubuntu. Generous people. Creative people. People who want crime to stop and to move from hope into a better reality. The ever-patient parents who just want their kids to be safe. Who themselves want to be safe.

My South Africa is the music of Hugh Masekela, Johnny Clegg, David Kramer, Brenda Fassie, Miriam Makeba, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and more. Much more. The clicks, the clacks, the rhythm, the minstrels, the drums and our unique beat. The sounds you only really hear here. That come from here. That tell our story.

My South Africa is braaivleis, bobotie, bunny chow, koeksisters, chakalaka and umnqushu. Jungle Oats and Maltabella. Mielies. Pap en wors. Our flavours. Rotis, melktert, potjies. This is home. Our food.

My South Africa is the World Cup-winning Bokke, our Wafcon-winning Banyana Banyana, the brilliant Proteas, our ever-hopeful Bafana Bafana, our Olympian swimmers and gold medallists, our incredible Blitzbokke. A barefoot Zola, a diminutive Baby Jakes, an incredible Caster. Our fate-defying heroes on the field and off.

My South Africa is a home to world class businesses in banking, finance, technology, mining, agriculture, automotive and manufacturing. Medical, the first heart transplant. A continent-leading infrastructure that now needs saving and repairing, and begging to be fixed.

My South Africa is the bush, the wide-open plains, the crashing ocean and deep, unique smell of our sea air, because of our kelp. The mountains and our trees. Our lions, giraffes, elephants, lions, leopards and cheetahs. Our warthogs and aardvarks. The animals who chose this land and stayed. The animals that people come from all over the world to see.

My South Africa is one of Struggle heroes, a people who said no to tyranny, a people who want a better life. A people who want jobs. A people who want a government that cares. Truly cares. One that solves unemployment through job creation. And restores and returns hope to our wonderful people. Ever-patient. Resilient and creative. Restless.

My country is about all of this – and more. My South Africa, a place that embraced my Lithuanian great-grandfather when he stepped off a boat in 1897 when his own country rejected him, and his new country embraced him.

My country, where my Polish grandmother arrived in 1930 not speaking a word of English, while her family who stayed behind were murdered by the Nazis and their neighbours. 

A place of acceptance, diversity and multiculturalism.

A place where we found a new start, new beginnings. Our home for 125 years. A place that’s in my blood, my cells, my nose, my ears, my sight and touch. This is my South Africa.

And as I woke up this morning – for all her challenges, for all her struggles, for all we still need to do, to fix, to build, to fight against, to stand for, to create and save – I woke up happy to be here. To be home, my home, our home.

A place worth fighting for. A place rich in opportunity. For all of us. Each of us who call this our home. DM