South Africa's heroes, healers and helpers amid gloomy 2023

For many South Africans, 2023 has been a challenging year with load-shedding almost every day, water outages, political turmoil, a failing currency and high crime.

But yet, throughout, there have been heroes, healers and helpers who have shone brightly as a reminder that we are a strong and resilient nation and good things are still happening. These are the people who offer positivity, inspiration and joy to the jaded and cynical, the crime-rattled and inflation-weary. 

Without doubt our Rugby World Cup win stands out as the biggest success this country has celebrated as virtually the entire population was gripped by rugby fever and non-Bok supporters of all ages, races and genders became overnight experts and devoted fans. 

One of the feel-good stories was the international success of the Mzansi Youth Choir, which entered America’s Got Talent this year and in September brought the house down with their first audition. The local group won the Golden Buzzer Award, which rocketed them through to perform at the grand finale. After that they returned to the US to perform to a crowd of 45,000 fans in San Diego with British rock band Coldplay. 

In May, South African-born dance sensation Musa Motha took Britain’s Got Talent by storm and captivated the globe. Motha suffered from cancer as a child, and his leg was amputated when he was 11. Despite this, he went on to become a dancer and, like the Mzansi Youth Choir, won the Audience Choice Golden Buzzer Award that pushed him through to the grand finale. 

And Belinda Davids of Gqeberha was featured on Got Talent All-Stars, and won the BBC’s Even Better Than the Real Thing with her Whitney Houston performance. 

On the political stage, finance minister Enoch Godongwana brought international recognition to the country when he was named the African Finance Minister of the Year for 2023 at the 17th African Banker Awards. He was recognised by the continent’s finance and banking industry for carrying through prudent macroeconomic policies and reforms under extremely challenging circumstances.

In February Zakes Bantwini, Wouter Kellerman and Nomcebo Zikode won a Grammy Award for the Best Global Music Performance in the Global Music category for their song Bayethe. And now comedian Trevor Noah has been nominated for a Golden Globe, while pop sensation Tyla and Amapiano star Musa Keys have received nominations for the 2024 Grammy Awards, set to take place on February 4 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. 

On the food scene, South African chef Hylton Espey in April became the fifth South African to have his restaurant awarded a Michelin star. Espey, who started his career at the Olympia Café in Kalk Bay, is the owner of Culture in Falmouth, in the UK. 

Black Coffee became the first South African DJ and producer to perform at Madison Square Gardens as the headline act featuring a 12-piece orchestra at a sold-out performance in October. And in the same month, Spotify announced gender-fluid artist Sandiso “Mx Blouse” Ngubane as its GLOW Spotlight Artist and put him on a gigantic billboard in the heart of New York City’s Times Square 

Local designer Laduma Ngxokolo, creator of the popular brand MaXhosa, launched his first overseas stand-alone store in New York City’s vibrant Soho shopping district. 

But South Africans in general proved their mettle when it came to a new challenge in the form of the avian flu infection which hit the poultry industry and led to egg shortages, and elevated prices of chicken and eggs. People turned to humour and kindness, as jokes spread on social media. Thoughtful customers of people like beloved small-time cake baker Davy Tsopo, South Africa’s own cake boss who started Cakey by Davy, took to dropping off trays of eggs at his business to make sure he could continue with his business. 

There have been people who made a difference through selflessness, like retired engineer Rainer Dixel, 82, of Bryanston. He dedicated much of his free time and expertise to fixing potholes for his community. 

It’s an ethos reflected in the actions of organisations like the National Sea Rescue Institute, animal welfare shelters, the Smile Foundation, Reach for a Dream and countless others throughout the year who embodied the spirit of Ubuntu. 

At the forefront was Gift of the Givers, the largest disaster response NGO in Africa. They worked tirelessly to dig boreholes for public hospitals, helped with aid in the KwaZulu-Natal floods, offering life-saving goods and on-the-ground support to countless people. 

Out on the sports fields, men and women united the country, drawing enthusiastic support and ultimately illustrating how we truly are “Stronger Together”. From the women’s national soccer team Banyana Banyana’s 3-2 win over Italy in the World Cup final capping off a stellar year, to the Proteas' successful 2023 campaign — sport has featured as one of the biggest positives of the year. 

Another unexpected delight emerged in the form of “Miss Albany” — beaming three-year-old Lethukukhanya Mjaji, who was photographed by her uncle Lungisa Mjaji. The photographs he took of her splashing through mud while proudly holding onto a loaf of bread were for a university project but captured public attention. They were eventually featured on an advertising billboard. 

Another inspiring story was that of Tarryn Johnston’s remarkable two-year journey to clean the Hennops River. What started as a simple idea morphed into a movement that led to the removal of more than 2-million kilograms of rubbish from the waterway. 

“Good things are happening all around us, even in the face of adversity. All it takes is a closer look to find the brightness in the load-shedded darkness. We have much to be proud of,” said well-known Good Things Guy Brent Lindeque. 

“I know people like to call me Brenty with the rose-tinted glasses, but the truth is we are able to find laughter in bad stuff. We have heroes all over, we win awards, there’s kindness wherever you look for it and Ubuntu abounds.” 

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