{"id":90262,"date":"2014-04-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelstartblg.wpenginepowered.com\/proudly-south-african\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T13:52:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T13:52:05","slug":"proudly-south-african","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/proudly-south-african\/","title":{"rendered":"How to be Proudly South African"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SA.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-32705\" alt=\"SA\" src=\"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SA.png\" width=\"443\" height=\"328\" \/><\/a>I don\u2019t know about you, but every month when April public holidays roll around, I start feeling proudly South African. It could be all the ads on TV, telling us about Freedom Day and all our country has achieved over the years, it could be the weather, or all the days off work, but there\u2019s something about this time of year that brings out the patriot in me.<\/p>\n<p>So how do we show our proudly South African-ness? I have a few ideas, feel free to add your own!<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Stop complaining<\/strong><br \/>\nThis is probably the biggest one. If there\u2019s one thing travelling has taught me, it\u2019s that every country has their issues. Even in those countries where corruption isn\u2019t a problem and healthcare is free and the government is most definitely listening to the people, there are problems \u2013 they\u2019re just so sophisticated we haven\u2019t had time to think of them yet. South Africa is a country so full of vibrancy and life and colour that visitors from all over the world fall in love with it\u2026 Maybe it\u2019s time we fell in love again, and stopped complaining about all the things wrong with our Rainbow Nation?<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Support local<\/strong><br \/>\nI don\u2019t think it matters if it\u2019s local music or local crafts or local produce, as long as it\u2019s made in SA. For some reason, American products have an irresistible allure, but we have so many incredible South African artists (in every shape and form) here on local soil, we should really be supporting them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Make the country a little better<br \/>\n<\/strong>If there\u2019s one thing the <a href=\"http:\/\/leadsa.co.za\/\" target=\"_blank\">Lead SA<\/a> campaign has taught me, it\u2019s that there are a lot of South Africans out there who are sick of complaining about the problems in our country, and ready to step up and do a little something about them. Imagine if we all did that? Apparently their latest campaign is to do 20 hours of service (in any way you like) before our 20 years of freedom celebration on April 27<sup>th<\/sup>\u2026 Can you imagine the enormous difference that could make?<\/p>\n<p>Whether it\u2019s the weather, the time off work or the effective ads, I\u2019m not sure, but I am feeling very Proudly South African at the moment. What about you?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/pin\/96897829456658759\/\" target=\"_blank\">(Image credit) <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don\u2019t know about you, but every month when April public holidays roll around, I start feeling proudly South African. It could be all the ads on TV, telling us about Freedom Day and all our country has achieved over the years, it could be the weather, or all the days off work, but there\u2019s something about this time of year that brings out the &#8230; <a title=\"How to be Proudly South African\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/proudly-south-african\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about How to be Proudly South African\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":90263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[41],"class_list":["post-90262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-south-africa","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to be Proudly South African | Travelstart Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I don\u2019t know about you, but every month when April public holidays roll around, I start feeling proudly South African. It could be all the ads on TV,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/proudly-south-african\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to be Proudly South African | Travelstart Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I don\u2019t know about you, but every month when April public holidays roll around, I start feeling proudly South African. It could be all the ads on TV,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/proudly-south-african\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Travelstart Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Travelstart\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-28T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-04T13:52:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SA.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"443\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"328\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brandon Mlilo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Travelstart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Travelstart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brandon Mlilo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.travelstart.co.za\\\/blog\\\/proudly-south-african\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.travelstart.co.za\\\/blog\\\/proudly-south-african\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brandon Mlilo\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.travelstart.co.za\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/607405fa1eb10609e1f0966851769710\"},\"headline\":\"How to be Proudly South African\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-28T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-04T13:52:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.travelstart.co.za\\\/blog\\\/proudly-south-african\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":397,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.travelstart.co.za\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.travelstart.co.za\\\/blog\\\/proudly-south-african\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.travelstart.co.za\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/SA.png\",\"keywords\":[\"south africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Lifestyle\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.travelstart.co.za\\\/blog\\\/proudly-south-african\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.travelstart.co.za\\\/blog\\\/proudly-south-african\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.travelstart.co.za\\\/blog\\\/proudly-south-african\\\/\",\"name\":\"How to be Proudly South African | Travelstart Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.travelstart.co.za\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.travelstart.co.za\\\/blog\\\/proudly-south-african\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.travelstart.co.za\\\/blog\\\/proudly-south-african\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.travelstart.co.za\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/SA.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-28T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-04T13:52:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"I don\u2019t know about you, but every month when April public holidays roll around, I start feeling proudly South African. 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