Cosatu and the EFF are calling for government to scrap what the trade union federation calls “ludicrous and absurd” R22-million flag project, saying the idea that the project will boost tourism is ridiculous.
The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture is planning to install a flag pole that is more than 100m in height as part of its national monumental flag project. It said the flag pole would serve as a national landmark and tourist attraction.
In a statement on Wednesday, Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said: “Many people around the world are being squeezed by the rising cost of living and they do not have the money to go around looking at flag monuments.
“South Africa has enough tourist attractions and does not need another inept government department to waste millions of rands on a misguided project to attract tourists.”
Pamla said it is ridiculous that South Africans are exposed to the “obscene spectacle of a clueless government department” lavishing R22-million on a flag monument.
“This is an insult to workers and South Africans in general. The same department failed to pay thousands of struggling artists, musicians, and sports professionals, who were unable to work during Covid-19 lockdown,” he said, calling on the Presidency to intervene.
The EFF called the project gross and wasteful. “In a clear exhibition of a department that does not know what to do with its budget, Nathi Mthethwa [Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture] and his colleagues have resolved to create a large-scale project out of placing a stick into the ground and attaching a flag to it,” said EFF spokesperson Sinawo Thambo.
“This is a useless, fruitless and misguided use of the taxpayers’ money that must be rejected by all logical and rational people. The explanation for this patently stupid waste of money is that it will be a symbol of unity and national pride. The department purports that this mounting of a flag will inspire social cohesion.”
Also condemning the project is the DA, which said the money should rather be used to boost the struggling arts and sports sector.
“This giant flag project is nothing more than a decoration project and will do absolutely nothing for nation-building or social cohesion. On the contrary, it is an insult to millions of struggling athletes and artists who have been receiving very little or no support from the department after their lives and livelihoods were destroyed by the Covid-19 lockdown,” said the official opposition party.
While others reject the noble cause to install a fancy flag pole, the AfriForum is still fighting to display the old apartheid flag.
The organisation appeared before the Supreme Court of Appeal on Wednesday in an attempt to overturn a 2019 ruling that the old 1928 national flag constitutes hate speech.
While Mark Oppenheimer, the legal representative for AfriForum, argued that the ban is actually “censorship”, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said its display depicts a nostalgia for apartheid.
The foundation’s advocate, Thembeka Ngcukaitobi, said the flag represents white domination over “black bodies”, adding that it is also a crime against humanity.
Judgment has been reserved in this matter.
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