Year In Review: What prominent South Africans learnt in 2016
Prominent South Africans, some whom have gone through tough times over the past 12 months, share their learnings from 2016 with Jacaranda FM News.
Springbok captain, Adriaan Strauss
Springbok captain Adriaan Strauss has undoubtedly endured a year as tough as they come. The Springboks only managed to win 4 out of 12 Tests they played. The team lost to Ireland, Italy, Argentina and Wales. Not to mention a record home defeat to the All Blacks. Strauss won't be wearing the armband in 2017, but says he learnt an awful lot about himself in 2016
Proteas Captain, Faf du Plessis
Proteas Test captain Faf du Plessis will look back at 2016 as a year packed with highs and lows. From beating Australia 5-0 in the ODI series at home, and a 2-1 Test series victory Down Under, to #mintgate and being found guilty of ball-tampering.
du Plessis was appointed as Test captain on a permanent basis in December and says he learnt a massive amount about his leadership abilities in 2016
Comedian, Trevor Noah
2016 was the year in which Trevor Noah really started to find his voice as host of the Daily Show. It was never going to be easy taking over from Jon Stewart, and Noah had to endure a fair amount of flak. But this year Noah grew from strength to strength, with his incisive social commentary gaining him more and more plaudits. Any year in which you interview US President Barack Obama at the White House surely can't be all bad? Not to mention authoring a best-seller. Noah says 2016 taught him to just be himself.
Athlete, Wayde van Niekerk
An Olympic gold medal. Shattering a long-standing world record. A hug from Usain Bolt. 2016 couldn't have been much better for Wayde van Niekerk - the first and only person in history to run faster than 10 seconds in the 100 metres, 20 seconds in the 200 metres and 44 seconds in the 400 metres. van Niekerk says this year has been all about the love.
ANC Secretary General, Gwede Mantashe
Gwede Mantashe is the man tasked with running the ANC on a day-to-day basis, something that couldn't have been easy in 2016. A poor performance at the polls led to the ANC losing power in Nelson Mandela Bay, Tshwane and Johannesburg. The ANC has rarely been out of the news, and the news has rarely been good. The 6th floor of Luthuli House can sometimes be far removed from the lives of ordinary South Africans, but Mantashe says 'the people' have taught him his biggest lesson this year.