Never expect rambunctious South Africans to behave as you'd like at your gathering

Dear Cupcake, you should know very well by now that this country's citizens are highly opinionated and not at all afraid to speak their mind, unlike their counterparts in, say, Russia or Zimbabwe

- Marianne Thamm

If you didn't know it before the National Convention, which enjoyed a noisy launch last weekend, you know it now.

South Africa really is a large, fractious family in which each member is ready to speak their mind, loudly and uncompromisingly, at every single gathering. No polite murmuring and tinkling of cutlery on crockery. That is not who we are.

We know that, even before all the place settings have been planned, someone is going to pull out, someone will complain about the food, some auntie will speak the truth about some unspoken feud and an uncle will get tipsy and need a little lie-down.

It is not as if we are not used to what has become known as "family gatherings" those press conferences, expected and unexpected, that President Cyril Ramaphosa calls every now and again.

Former president Jacob Zuma would usually wait for us all to be tucked up in bed past midnight when he made some startling family announcements, like the firing of ministers or the sudden discovery of an "intelligence" report.

In a way, the National Assembly too is a family gathering. Who doesn't remember those nights eating popcorn with the kids as we sat watching the EFF headbutting parliamentary oversight while flip-flopping on issues?

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Shortly after the recent "bombshell" press conference at which Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi fingered just about everyone in the South African Police Service and government as being a covert mafia link, Ramaphosa tried to mop up a bit.

He called a family gathering.