Old flag ‘reminds black South Africans of the inhumane nature of apartheid’
Updated | By Gaopalelwe Phalaetsile
The Equality Court sitting in the High Court in Johannesburg has declared the gratuitous display of the apartheid flag as hate speech, harassment amounting to unfair discrimination.
Judge Phineas Mojapelo delivered the judgment on Wednesday.
He ruled in favour of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, supported by the South African Human Rights Commission and the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation.
The foundation brought the matter to court after the old flag was displayed during the Black Friday protests against farm murders in 2018.
Mojapelo said those who display the flag gratuitously seek to do more than just cause harm but to remind black South Africans of the inhumane nature of apartheid and therefore humiliate them.
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Lobby group Afriforum opposed the application, saying while it will first study the judgment before taking any further action it did not agree with it.
"If the judgment is saying displaying a symbol is hate speech because it is very offensive that is something we take issue with, our preliminary reaction is that we do not agree with the judgement, we don't agree that it solves the issues the Nelson Mandela Foundation is trying to deal with," said the organisation’s Ernst Roets.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation's CEO Sello Hatang has welcomed the judgement.
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