NMF: We will go to the Constitutional Court
The Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) says it has every intention to petition the highest court in the land after suffering a blow around the display of the old South African flag.
The foundation is not backing down following their defeat in the High Court in Johannesburg.
“We have also granted them [their legal counsel] the authority to look into appealing directly to the Constitutional Court,” said the foundation’s spokesperson Luzuko Koti on Tuesday.
The court ruled that lobby group Afriforum’s Ernst Roets was not in contempt of court when he published a picture of the apartheid flag on social media hours after the Equality Court found that the gratuitous display of the flag tantamount to hate speech.
“We feel that there are a number of issues that we need to look into quite closely.”
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Koti reiterated that the foundation is not seeking the total banning or criminalisation of the flag but “this symbol is opening wounds”.
“Some of those wounds have not healed and therefore those people need healing.”
Roets believes the case against him was nothing less than a witch hunt.
"We expected the judgment, however, we are still grateful for it. This proves to us what we've been saying since the beginning that this seems to be a witch hunt by the Nelson Mandela Foundation against people who express themselves in ways in which they do not agree.”