Lo and
behold- for the uninitiated the forum want’s South Africans to acknowledge this
Apartheid flag. Please.
They seek an order declaring that gratuitous displays of the old, apartheid-era flag constituted hate speech, unfair discrimination and harassment based on race. Whatever that means.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation is not taking this lightly and is opposing AfroForum’s point of departure.
Counsel for the SA Human Rights Commission Wim Trengove SC said on Monday: “What they say is that ‘we yearn for the good old South Africa when we lived in a state which entrenched white superiority over black people, where white people were celebrated and black people were humiliated'”, he addressed the Equality Court, sitting at the South Gauteng High Court.
Trengove said people who waved the old flag chose not to wave the new flag of the democratic, nonracist South Africa.
Trengove said those who waved the old flag did that in public, in front of black people who were degraded by the apartheid state.
“What they are saying is that they yearn for the state where black people were humiliated. It is a profoundly humiliating and degrading message they are sending to black people,” Trengove said.
The flag stood for racial domination, says Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, who represented the foundation, at court.
“AfriForum does not engage with the impact of this flag,” Ngcukaitobi said.
Ngcukaitobi urged the court to read section 10 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act “in an expansive manner to include symbols in its definition”.
The section states that no person may publish words that could reasonably be construed to demonstrate a clear intention to be hurtful, incite harm or propagate hatred.
AfroForum should desist from such cowardly behavior considering lives were lost, to attain this democracy that was fought for by all- finish & klaar.
The display of this flag is gross, inhumane and utter DISGUSTING, considering after 25 years’ we’re still debating this?
Instead the forum should be charged for instigating such. Amen!
Judgement has been reserved by the Court.
Image (Sello Hatang- CE NMF is having none of it).
