Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie said McKenzie said he would safeguard the national anthem. Picture: Anton Geyser/Gallo Images
Minister of sport, arts and culture Gayton McKenzie said he has no intention of removing the Afrikaans stanza of the national anthem – Die Stem.
McKenzie made the vow during his department’s budget vote in Parliament on Tuesday.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have been critical of Die Stem and are well known for not singing and taking their seats in Parliament when the anthem transitions to the Afrikaans stanza.
During the debate, veteran actor and EFF MP Fana Mokoena said accepting Die Stem is akin to accepting the apartheid flag.
“So you accept what is called Die Stem, which was part of the apartheid regime which suppressed black people like you and I and people killed over Die Stem, can you minister accept the apartheid flag in the same way that you accept Die Stem because the two go together?”
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McKenzie rebuffed the comparison between the old apartheid flag and Die Stem.
“No, the two go together in your world, not in the real world because in the real world the old flag does not exist anymore. So, Die Stem is part of the national anthem. I will accept it. You see, there’s so many amongst you that want us to still live in the past. We have moved on, you can stay there, but we no longer live there, we will sing Die Stem.”
McKenzie earlier said he would safeguard the anthem.
“Die Stem being included is an expression of how far we’ve come as a nation. I sing Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika, God bless Africa, Setjhaba sa heso as hard as I sing Uit die blou van onse hemel.”
“We must protect the national anthem. We have one of the most beautiful national anthems… We will not be ashamed to say we support Die Stem being part of the national anthem,” McKenzie said.
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Die Stem emanates from May 1918, when Cornelis Jacobus Langenhoven wrote an Afrikaans poem by the same name, for which music was composed by the Reverend Marthinus Lourens de Villiers in 1921.
It was therefore written by a South African for the country three decades before apartheid officially came into existence.
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