By Wardah Wilkinson

The Nelson Mandela Foundation is calling for a national conversation on whether the old South African flag should be banished. The debate has resurfaced amid the outrage over the use of the apartheid era South African flags at last week’s Black Monday protest. The protest mobilised over more than 20 000 people across the country to speak out against the recent spate of farm murders.

However, viral photos of white Afrikaaner protesters carrying the controversial symbol did not go down well on social media, with many commentators slamming the protest as a racist.

“We deplore the murder of farmers and respect the constitutional right of South Africans to express their displeasure and grievance about anything in South Africa through protest,” said the Nelson Mandela Foundations spokesperson Luzuko Koti.

“But we must speak out and something should be done when people undermine our symbols such as the national anthem and our flag.”

Koti made mention that even though the Black Mondays protest and brutal farm murders is a societal issue, murder concerns every South African.

“The content of activities which had accompanied it, cannot be condoned….the action of burning the new South African flag cannot be condoned. The old South African flag symbolized the apartheid era which was a crime against humanity.”

The foundation believes that a conversation should take place, on the flags influence and if its public display should be criminalised. As even though the protest was, significant, he said there were people “who used this protest for their own agenda”; adding that “they are those who do not dream of a prosperous society black or white.”

There is great concern that the Black Monday protest “deepened the divide in South Africa”, he said.
One of the possible solutions to be reviewed in the debate on the prohibition of the flag is that it should be kept in places such as museums and other places of memory. VOC