There was a rare moment of political unanimity in South Africa this week as parties laid into reggae singer Ras Dumisani for his poor rendition of the South African anthem.
According to his biography on music.org.za, after joining a group called Oneness, Love and Music, it “became evident that he was a leader rather than a follower which led him to forming his own band called Afrikhaya”.
He moved from Durban to Johannesburg where he “discovered that local promoters were not ready for the rhythm and the political lyrics of his reggae music”.
“A rather nasty encounter with a producer finally convinced him to spread his wings. Ras Dumisani, the Zulu man, took his passion for reggae music and his love for life and people with him to the United States, Europe [London, Holland, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland], Israel, West Africa and finally to France.”
Dumisani has since apologised for the anthem debacle, but pinned blame on the French for “sabotaging my performance with an old microphone and a bunch of school kids”.
“I was in deep deep trouble even before I started singing the anthem. If the microphone was working, at least I could have harmonised some of the words,” he said in an interview with Metro FM.
The Congress of the People said Dumisani’s performance “looked as though it came right out of the blooper reel of a reality TV singing show”, while the Young Communist League said it was concerned that the singer didn’t know the lyrics — “especially the English/Afrikaans version”, and sang the entire anthem out of note, creating a mockery of a song that is supposed to be the pride of our nation”.
Putting the boot in, the league went further: “Ras Dumisani is a chancer, a con-artist, a howler of note and a disgrace to our country and must be banned from singing the national anthem at official functions.”
For good measure, it called on the Education Department to make sure pupils knew the words to the anthem and suggested mandatory singing at morning assemblies.
The matter also sparked a diplomatic kerfuffle of sorts, with denials and counter-denials from the South African embassy and French rugby union.
It has now emerged that the Bok management will be taking no chances for the match against Italy, and a recorded version of the anthem will be played. Perhaps we need a travelling choir?
| FULL SPEED AHEAD |
NOT SO FAST |
 David Maynier
Six months after being sworn in as an MP, Maynier — the DA’s defence spokesperson — is holding the executive to account.
|
 Ras Dumisani
Did anyone check if he knew the words? Did anyone listen to him before the match? Also, having incurably bad pitch shouldn’t be blamed on the microphone. |
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