The old South African flag has been banned from public spaces as it is unconstitutional and promotes hate speech and discrimination based on race, the Equality Court found on Wednesday.
AfriForum and the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) have now vowed to work together towards building a better country following the ruling by Judge Phineas Mojapelo restricting the display of the old “oranje blanje blou”.
CEO of the NMF, Sello Hatang, said the judgement was “not a victory” for the organisation until such time as the judge’s concluding remarks are achieved.
He added that if the foundation truly wanted to be victorious to honour the memory of anti-apartheid icons Mandela and Ahmed Kathrada, South Africans must acknowledge each other’s pain and not hurl insults at each other.
Ernst Roets, deputy CEO of AfriForum, said: “We would need time to study the judgement before we can respond comprehensively, but we can make some preliminary comments.
“As we have stated in our affidavit as well, President Nelson Mandela said if you want to take away the freedom of others, that means you are yourself a prisoner of hate. We will work together with the NMF.”
Mojapelo added: “We cherish the right to freedom of expression. The flag can still be used as artwork, in academic research and for journalistic purposes and there is no cost order.”
This ruling comes after the NMF asked the court to ban the display of the old flag after a farmers’ protest in October 2017, where protesters against farm attacks, openly displayed their old
apartheid-era flags.
African News Agency