As we recognise the diverse experiences of the fractious history of our nation, the court judgment against the old flag must be accompanied by a concerted effort at nation building,Recently, the Equality Court pronounced on the inappropriate use of the old South African flag at the behest of the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the South African Human Rights Commission.
We proudly celebrated our flag in 2010, the time has come for us to do so again, not to celebrate football hosting, but to celebrate the significance of our common nationhood. Let us actively isolate those who wish to take the country backwards to the painful days of"Die ou Republiek van Suid Afrika". To be clear, this flag symbolises a horrible crime against humanity.
It also falls foul of the exception in the clause on the right to freedom of expression in that it is an advocacy of hatred on the basis of race and could constitute incitement to cause violence or harm to people of another race, namely black South Africans . It is hate speech. The flag hoisted on the day assumed a new meaning and a sense of the permanence of its significance, the entrenchment of white domination and black subjugation. This was in the aftermath of the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, and the political air was thick with discontent.
The English people of South Africa were supposed to not like the republic and at the time, I thought Rev Kluge was English. A worker at the Bible Society, Mr Ephraim Nhlangulela, with another man, Ezrom, whose surname I cannot recall, took me to the kitchen of the Bible Society and educated me. They told me that Kluge was German Afrikaner and in any case, all white South Africans stood to benefit from the declaration of the republic.
Against all that background, it must be clear that the old flag was always a hostile symbol for the black majority in South Africa; much as the British Union Jack was regarded unfavourably by the Afrikaner population of South Africa. It stood as a symbol of our insecurity at the feared police stations of our country.
To this end, South Africans should support the measures mooted in the Civil Society Manifesto of the National Convention of South Africa, convened by the South African Council of Churches , that include building towards"a reconciled future in light of the past", a reconciled economic dispensation that relooks wealth, human worth and the fundamentals of human dignity; focusing on the younger generation.
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