AfriForum provides a platform to show old SA flag – Ngcukaitobi

Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, legal defence for the Nelson Mandela Foundation is in Gauteng High Court to lodge an application for the old apartheid flag to be declared unlawful and considered hate speech.

A non-profit organisation, the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF), argues that gratuitous displays of the apartheid-era South African flag should be legally considered hate speech.

Lobby group AfriForum opposes the foundation’s submission, arguing that only words, not symbols and images, constitute hate speech according to the Equality Court’s definition.

AfriForum argues that the right to freedom of expression as enshrined in the Constitution would be violated by attempts to ban the flag.

Ngcukaitobi argued in court that the display of the flag was in violation of the Equality Act. Quoting former South African prime minister DF Malan, he said the flag was that of racial exclusivity. He went through the history of the flag and said Malan viewed the flag as a representation of Dutch nationalism.

He said AfriForum claimed not to like the flag but at the same time created a platform for the flag to be displayed, referring to a black Monday protest in 2017 where the old flag was displayed by white demonstrators.

He asked the court why anyone wanted to display the old flag and said that those who wished to do so, wanted to display their previous advantages as “white people”. The flag continued to discriminate on a group of South African’s based on race, he said.

He urged the court to consider the foundation’s submission to grant a declaratory order on the public display of the flag.

The Human Rights Commission’s Wim Trengrove took the stand to argue that the public display of the flag was a serious problem.

He said no one was in court in an attempt to stop “racists” from displaying the flag in their private homes. They were in court to dispute against the public display of the flag in the faces of black people, which was a representation of the old South Africa.

There should be no explanation for waving the old South African flag, as it propagated harm on the ground of race, the court heard.

The ANC’s Gauteng deputy chairperson Panyaza Lesufi was also in attendance, clad in party regalia. The ANC is reportedly in support of the submission for the display of the old flag to be declared unlawful.

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