Tuneless singer tackled after mauling Boks’ anthem

SOUTH AFRICAN fury over the off-key rendition of their national anthem before the Springbok-France rugby test last Friday continues unabated, with former South African star Naas Both blaming the rendition for South Africa’s defeat, the French saying the South African embassy picked controversial singer Ras Dumisani – and Dumisani blaming his equipment.

On Sunday the South African Rugby Union wrote to their French counterparts expressing the nation’s dismay at the performance in Toulouse, when Dumisani – who is from Durban but lives in France – took an odd approach to usually stately Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika (God Bless Africa).

“As a union we were shocked and horrified by the rendition of the anthem, and I contacted the French Federation on Saturday morning to express our very grave concerns,” said the union’s president Oregan Hoskins.

However, French team manager Jo Maso retaliated by saying the choice of singer at each game was made by the visiting team’s diplomatic staff.

“Every time we welcome a foreign side, we ask the embassy to propose people for the anthems,” said Maso.

“It’s the South African embassy that put forward this man and we respected their choice.”

Dumisani said he blamed the equipment for the poor sound, but that did little to douse outrage in Africa at his off-key performance of the four-language anthem.

The Young Communist League of South Africa described Dumisani’s rendition of the anthem as “horrendous”.

“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 on official functions,” said the league in a statement.

The league urged the government to compile a list of capable artists to avoid future embarrassment, especially ahead of next year’s soccer World Cup.

A Facebook group, “Ban Ras Dumisani from ever singing again”, collected 600 members just hours after opening.

After the game Bok coach Peter de Villiers blasted organisers for “disrespecting our anthem” while Victor Matfield called the situation “a joke”.

Dumisani, however maintains: “Everyone has their own tastes and you can’t always account for that but most people find my music so beautiful.”

Dumisani then went on to blame his equipment: “They (the match organisers) gave me an old microphone – a very old one,” he said.

“The orchestra also played the dirge-like tune too fast,” he added.

“I was not feeling good because I felt they wanted to sabotage my concert. I want to apologise to all the people at home.”

Former Bok star Naas Botha called the performance an “absolute disaster” and suggesting it had a hand in the World Cup title-holders defeat.

“It was shocking and definitely didn’t assist in creating a calm atmosphere for the team, as it should have.

“Someone has to be taken to task for this disaster.”