Wayde van Niekerk, South Africa’s golden Olympic champion was voted “South African of the Year” in a Twitter poll organised by Jan Braai on Heritage Day.
Jan Braai, who’s real name Jan Scannell, is the man behind the National Braai Day initiative.
More than 41 000 tweeters voted in the poll which saw the Olympic gold medallist wining. Black Coffee came in second place, Caster Semenya in third and soprano Pretty Yende in fourth.
“In the end, Van Niekerk’s superb run from lane eight in the Olympic 400m final sealed the deal; not only did he claim South Africa’s first gold medal at the Rio Games (Semenya claimed the second), but his time of 43.03 seconds also broke the 400m world record set in 1999,” a statement from Scannell said.
“It’s been an outstanding two years for the popular yet humble Olympian. In 2015 he announced himself on the world stage by winning gold in the 400m final at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing.”
Scannell says that the South African of the Year is someone who, with a phenomenal achievement, made you extremely proud to be South African and Wayde’s performance in Rio catapulted him to super stardom.
Vote for your South African of the Year 2016. Poll closes and winner announced on 24 September. #southafricanof2016
— Jan Braai (@janbraai) September 18, 2016
And even though its “just a twitter poll”… we couldn’t agree more! Van Niekerk may have won the hearts of the nation at the Olympics but he was already doing phenomenal things before the games… like donating over half a million rand in winnings towards the upgrade of the Groote Schuur Hospital’s neonatal unit.
Scannell came up with the idea for National Braai Day as a way of marking Heritage Day, and said the South African of the Year project was not done for profit, but to enhance Heritage Day celebrations.
“… what Jan Scannell had in mind with the Braai Day initiative… is nurturing and embracing a common South African culture, which is shared across all races and genders. Not one South African person can tell you that they have never witnessed a braai. Even in rural areas they light a fire and put their meat on it to cook.” – Archbishop Desmond Tutu
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