One date, two names, one fire

September 24th is officially known as Heritage Day in South Africa. Unofficially, it is called Braai Day. Between these two names lies the history of a country that has been searching for common ground.

On Thursday, September 24, 2026, South Africa will come to a standstill. It is a public holiday in the spring of the Southern Hemisphere, and on this day, fires will burn in countless gardens, public squares, and in front of butcher shops in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban. The same is true in London, Toronto, and Sydney—everywhere that South Africans live. The holiday is officially called Heritage Day. In many places, the informal name "Braai Day" has taken hold alongside it.

September 24th originally belonged to a king

Before 1995, this date was a matter for KwaZulu-Natal. There, September 24 was observed as Shaka Day, marking the presumed date of death of the Zulu King Shaka in 1828. In the first decades of the 19th century, Shaka had united the scattered Nguni clans into a Zulu nation, and every year people gathered at his grave in KwaDukuza to honor him.

When the new, democratically elected parliament finalized the list of public holidays after the first free elections, September 24 was missing. The Inkatha Freedom Party, a party with a large Zulu membership, protested. The date was too significant for their constituency to be removed.

A compromise intended to belong to everyone

Instead of escalating the conflict, parliament agreed on a solution that reflects the character of the young nation. The date remained, but its content was broadened. No longer belonging to just one king and one people, the day was meant to make room for all of the country's cultural backgrounds. On September 24, 1995, Heritage Day was celebrated for the first time, in the year following the first democratic elections and under the presidency of Nelson Mandela.

The official definition of heritage was deliberately broad. It encompasses culture and history as well as wildlife, monuments, art, literature, music, languages, and culinary traditions. A holiday that today must hold together twelve official languages—including South African Sign Language as of 2023—cannot afford to be narrow.

In 2005, a man from Stellenbosch invents a second holiday

Ten years later, a second layer was added. Jan Scannell, a Stellenbosch native, quit his job in finance in 2005 and launched a media campaign with a simple thesis: There is one thing that virtually all South Africans do, regardless of language, origin, or income. They light a fire and cook meat over it.

From then on, Scannell appeared as Jan Braai and proposed declaring September 24 as National Braai Day. Not as a substitute for Heritage Day, but as its practical realization. His argument: The Irish have St. Patrick's Day, the French have Bastille Day, and South Africa has the fire.

An archbishop with an apron

The campaign would likely have remained just a marketing idea had it not gained an advocate on September 5, 2007, whom the country was willing to listen to. Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, became the patron, tied on an apron, and ate a boerewors in front of the cameras.

Tutu argued that so many things pulled the country apart, but this one thing had the power to bring it together. There are eleven official languages, he reasoned, but only one word for the braai, and that word is the same in Xhosa, English, and Afrikaans. It was Tutu who, years earlier, had described South Africa as a "Rainbow Nation," and it was exactly this idea that now stood around the fire.

At the end of 2007, the initiative renamed itself Braai4Heritage. The National Heritage Council, which had initially dismissed the idea as trivializing, voiced its support in 2008.

Not everyone thinks it's a good idea

It is worth listening to the opposing voices, as they are part of the story. Critics accuse Braai Day of overwriting the true significance of the day and turning a confrontation with history into a commercial event. Anyone remembering a day that emerged from a dispute over the commemoration of King Shaka can hardly brush aside the question of whose heritage is being celebrated here.

Both names therefore coexist. The official holiday remains Heritage Day, the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture announces a theme each year, and the fires burn in parallel.

One word, many hearths

The language alone shows how different these fires can look. In the townships, the braai is often called shisa nyama, from Zulu, literally "burn meat." The term refers simultaneously to the preparation, the gathering around it, and the place itself: a butcher shop with an attached fireplace where you choose your meat and have it grilled on the spot. What started as a simple business idea for butchers on the weekend has become a meeting point where the seating arrangements do not ask about profession or origin.

At many wineries in the Cape region, the open fire is part of the farm landscape, and in front yards from Wädenswil to Winterthur, you will also find a South African family or two by the embers on September 24.

Heritage Day therefore works exactly as it was intended in 1995. It does not dictate a program, but rather a date. Each group decides for themselves what to make of it.

For those wishing to accompany September 24th with a glass: In our Braai collection, we have put together three South African red wines that go well with smoke and embers. Which one belongs with which meat is detailed in our article on wine and braai meat. And for those who want to learn how to build the fire properly, you can find the technique in "Braai is not just grilling".

Sources

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_Day_(South_Africa)
• publicholidays.co.za/heritage-day
• awarenessdays.com – Heritage Day South Africa
• sahistory.org.za – Whose heritage is it anyway
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_variations_of_barbecue
• welovesalt.com – Heritage Day South Africa
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shisa_nyama
• southafrica.net – Shisa Nyama