Presenting South Africa

Brett Yeatman and his wife Annette.

With 11 official languages, a melting pot of cultures, and a vast and diverse landscape, South Africa is a wonderful beast all of its own.

Tauranga local Brett Yeatman will be presenting the wonders and delights of South Africa next Tuesday, October 17, as part of the ‘Living in Harmony' series hosted by Multicultural Tauranga.

'We will be presenting South African culture with food and language and dance and a whole lot of different things,” says Brett.

'It'll be a little bit of a snapshot of South African culture.”

Brett says there will be cultural food, dancing, information about the country and more.

'We're expecting to have boerewors which is South African sausage; we'll have koeksisters which is a sweet, syrupy pastry that we are going to make and they have melktert which is a sweet pastry crust filled with a creamy filling,” says Brett. 'There will also be peri-peri chicken, so those are the main things that we have thought of showing, and then there will be a traditional Afrikaans dance which we are going to do as well.”

Brett and his family moved to New Zealand nearly 17 years ago and he says he feels it's important to hold on to his roots.

'It's one of those things – people come to a new country and all they want to do is integrate, they don't want to dwell on the past, but I do think it's important to stay connected to your roots.”

Brett says South Africa is unique in its own right and, with a mixture of different cultures mixing and mingling, it's no wonder.

'South Africa is interesting – there are countries within the country, and then you've got other countries such as Zimbabwe and Zambia and Mozambique and Botswana. All of these are connected to South Africa.

'That's what I'm really keen to share,” says Brett, 'just all the diversity that South Africa brings”.

The event will be held on Tuesday, October 17 from 7pm at The Balcony Room in the Historic Village in 17th Ave.

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