SA's greatest: Surprises await

2004-09-26 11:23

Dulile Sowaga

Johannesburg - Are Zola Dlamini and Brenda Fassie greater than Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu and Mirriam Makeba? What about Eugene Terre'Blanche?

Shocking answers are expected this evening when SABC 3 reveals the greatest 100 South Africans as nominated and voted for by the public.

The list contains the names of the loved, the admired, the controversial, the feared and the despised. This evening's show at 19:30 brings to an end a search that started in June.

Hosts Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu and Denis Beckett are mum about the final list but the word is that surprises abound.

Just four years after entering the music and television industry, Bongani Dlamini aka Zola, presenter of TV programme Zola 7, could outstrip even the famous leaders and fathers of the struggle against apartheid, according to insiders.

So, too, the late pop diva Brenda Fassie, whose name is tipped to perch above those of struggle heroes Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo. Can she outshine Mama Afrika, Mirriam Makeba, too? "Anything is possible," say the producers.

Maholwana-Sangqu hailed the list as truly the people's choice. "The list is as fascinating as it is surprising," she said. "What it does reveal is that South Africa has been blessed with an abundance of greatness."

It came as a surprise - pleasant or unpleasant, depending on one's view - that Eugene Terre'Blanche, leader of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, was among the nominees.

South Africans' true feelings about Terre'Blanche will be revealed, with his name said to be close on the list to that of anti-apartheid Afrikaner activist Beyers Naude, who died recently.

The names of several renowned individuals do not appear on the list and this is bound to cause disappointment among their supporters.

They are said to include King Moshoeshoe I, Nobel Prize-winning author J M Coetzee, popular author Wilbur Smith, late jazz diva Dolly Rathebe, writer Olive Schreiner, Cat scan inventor Allan Cormack, Olympic gold medallist Josia Thugwane and Saartje Baartman.

The obvious list includes church leaders, politicians, singers and media personalities.

It includes Archbishop Desmond Tutu, George Bizos, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Helen Suzman, Pik Botha, Tim Modise, Bob Mabena, Gareth Cliff, Jeremy Mansfield, Dan Moyane, Lawrence Dube, Randall Williams, Jovial Rantao, Ruda Landman, Derek Watts and John Perlman.

On December 9, the final episode of the documentaries will be debated live and the celebrity champions will argue for their great South African of all time. On the day, the top 10, for which the public will have had a chance to vote, will be revealed.

Tonight positions 100 to 11 will be revealed in that order. Positions 10 to 1 will be in no particular order and the positions will be decided by public votes. The voting for the greatest South African of all closes at the end of the show on December 9.

- City Press