R22 million flag: The beauty of a clearly bad idea

Who would have thought it would be a flag that made us finally grow a sense of outrage!

I mean, the greedy government gnomes have been funnelling billions of rands into their manky lairs for decades and left us little to show for it. At least, with an overpriced flagpole, you get a big flag to look at!

But no. The announcement by Minister of Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa that we are purchasing a 100m flagpole for R22 million has been the straw that broke the camel’s back of South Africa’s corruption-jaded public.

We have had people stoking uprisings, sabotaging infrastructure, capturing entire institutions and profiting off the Covid deaths of their countrymen and women. Artists, hospitality and events operators became indigent during the pandemic with nary a cent in income support. These outrages have made us grumble a bit, shrug and get on with our day.

But this, this! This tall, expensive flagpole is the hill we are prepared to die on. Let them cock up Medupi, steal the entire platteland’s maintenance budget and send mentally ill people to die in squalor, but they mustn’t dare build that flagpole.

It does appear to be an egregious waste of money for a country with around 35% unemployment to be installing the biggest flagpole in Africa. This is particularly so when you remember that we already have an enormous flagpole. That one towers over the crumbling cityscape of quaint, remote but friendly Gqeberha.

At 60 metres, it is already impressively tall, and the billowing SA flag makes for rather pleasant viewing on windy days, with which Gqeberha is blessed. Most impressive of all, is that it apparently cost only R75,000 to install that big flagpole.

So, something indeed smells fishy about that R22 million price tag. A pole that should cost about as much as a second-hand Corolla is suddenly being invoiced at the price of a fleet of Lamborghinis. That usually indicates a lack of due diligence at the very least, and outright kickbacks and thievery at worst.

But usually, we don’t get so terribly upset about that kind of thing. Remember the arms deal? The malfeasance around that may have run into the billions. But it was complicated, and the whole thing dragged on, until everyone was just sick of it, and we just let Jacob Zuma become president anyway, ‘cos a bunch of thuggish dudes supported him and Mbeki was kind of aloof.

And of course the Guptas managed to then team up with elements of that movement to capture our entire energy sector, the NPA, parts of the cabinet and some of our media.

There was also a nuclear deal with Russia that we were almost forced into, and that may have been worth R100 billion.

Details around the latter two matters were fleshed out in the Zondo commission. But that was ultimately just too overwhelming to comprehend for its sheer scale. Hundreds of witnesses were interviewed, more than an exabyte of evidence was collected and it has cost us more than R1 billion already.

Fortunately, the commission’s reports are being tabled, and corruption arrests may follow. The NPA appears to have rebuilt itself and we can even hope for some arrests in the not too imminent future.

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Tragically, but understandably, South Africa has been corrupted by a series of interventions and an army of individuals so massive and so depraved, that it is difficult to even grasp. It will take our country’s finest legal minds decades to unravel the Gordian knot of corruption and maladministration that holds our country hostage.

Everyday South Africans like you and I can barely get our heads around it. So we grumble shrug and move on. But a R22 million flag? Now THAT I can comprehend!

I am encouraged to see that the arts ministry is reconsidering this particular line item, and may scrap the idea, following the public outcry.

That will be a win for public advocacy, quite possibly because of its clarity of concept. R22 million is too much to pay, for something we don’t need. So the people have spoken, and hopefully put a stop to the idea.

Someone cleverer than me has said this is a case of pars pro toto – the part represents the whole, and our outrage at this misallocation of our scarce resources indicates our anger at the whole shabby mess of corruption in totality.

I hope, too, that this might be a case of gradatum ferociter – step by step, ferociously. Let this small example of people’s power and citizen’s engagement be the start of something bigger – really holding our leaders to account, and insisting that they govern in the interest of the South African people.