Ras Dumisani
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Concerning the anthem-in-Toulouse debacle, the fact is that Ras Dumisani was the only musician supplied to the French by the South African embassy to sing the national anthem. No matter how badly he sang, I sympathise with the guy. Clearly, Dumisani was handed a grenade without a pin from the start. All he could do was hold it tight and do the best he could in the situation.

When later interviewed by many South African media outlets, Dumisani apologised profusely, took responsibility, and, of course, made a long list of excuses. When Robert Marawa of Metro FM asked Dumisani to sing the national anthem, it was easy to see that he genuinely did not know that he was singing some parts of it incorrectly.

To each of the media outlets, Dumisani tendered an apology no less than twice in each interview. Now, why is it too difficult for many of the commentators, bloggers, and members of the South African public to forgive and move on?

Back to what my grandpa taught me. Could it be that Dumisani is asking for something many South Africans actually do not have: forgiveness? If someone is full of self-hatred and has never taken the time to forgive their own shortcomings, usually they don't have any forgiveness to give.

There are many South Africans who cannot sing the national anthem in full. Many do not see the necessity of learning it. Daily, we see sports people who sing only one part of the anthem, or do not sing it at all.

It is true that because of our history, each half of our anthem elicits dissimilar emotions in most adults. It is a truth we have to face up to. Thus, I am not convinced that we are all outraged over the same issue here. The anger seems suspiciously greater than the superficial talk.

I am not condoning what Dumisani did, most importantly because he did it on a public platform. I am simply calling on our people to differentiate between genuine outrage and a combustible mixture of bottled-up hatred and self hatred. Forgive him if you can and let's move on. We have a country to build.