Cape Town – Viewers will see the controversial Anthony Bourdain refer to South African soldiers who died fighting for the country at the famous statue of Paul Kruger on Church Square in Tshwane on Friday on CNN International (DStv 401) at 17:00 as "ugly Dutch guys" and "assholes".
Bourdain who appears to brim with disdain for legitimate parts of South African heritage from the outset of his travel show in which he visits a portion of the country, also makes mistakes like referring to putu pap as "futu" as he comes to shoot eland, takes a taxi ride to Soweto and shows how people in Hillbrow live now.
Later Cape Town's restaurants get dissed.
Bourdain visits parts of Gauteng in South Africa in Friday's episode of Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown on CNN International which is sure to grate some viewers and already elicited strong reaction from viewers elsewhere in the world who've seen it.
At Paul Kruger's statue in Tshwane surrounded by anonymous soldiers who fought British imperialism and colonial oppression in South Africa, Bourdain flippantly asks: "Who are those ugly white men?" and then: "Who are those assholes anyway?" taking no time to actually find out. Meanwhile people from all races continue to pose for pictures at the statue.
"Ugly Dutch guys with guns. Who I guess was particularly friendly to the current power. They look like they're either coming from, or on their way to oppress the black man," says Bourdain. "The first order of business when I take my country back is take that shit down. Tear that down."
Later in the show the travelling chef mistakenly calls putu pap, "futu".
No love for Cape Town either
Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown also gives opportunity for Cape Town's restaurants to be dissed in the episode.
"After this show airs I'm going to get a huge amount of mail saying why didn't you go to Cape Town - great modern restaurants, cutting-edge chefs. Is it alright that I missed all that?" says Bourdain in Friday's episode, talking to Johannesburg chef Andrea Burgener.
"I feel like those particular restaurants in Cape Town are not really representative of what most people in this country are eating," says Burgener.
"You know, I'm almost used to it, foreigners coming to South Africa and basically being ignorant about our country, like those guys from The Amazing Race that were so surprised that Johannesburg was a city, or journalists coming here to do documentaries about violent crime and end up trying to rationalise it by invoking apartheid," says an overseas viewer who saw the episode, and calling Bourdain "completely sanctimonious".
"He mistakenly claims the ANC was formed in 1923 when it was actually formed in 1912 - their centennial was last year."
"Didn't they do any research or did they just not care? What if the other episodes had problems only the locals could spot, how can we trust them now?"
Channel24 asked CNN International for a response or comment earlier in the week on why Bourdain calls South Africans "assholes" and made reference to "ugly Dutch guys with guns".
"We leave it to our viewers to watch Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown: South Africa in full to get the complete picture," CNN International responded.
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