The entire Poverty Cabinet must apologise to South Africa for the ill-conceived and wasteful giant flag plan
19 May 2022
Note to Editors: Please find an attached soundbite by Tsepo Mhlongo MP
The DA is not surprised by Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele's revelation that Cyril Ramaphosa's Cabinet supported the multi-million rand giant flag idea.
Just when you think the ANC government can't go any lower, it comes up with fresh methods to demonstrate its ineptness and how out of touch it is with ordinary South Africans.
The DA calls on the poverty cabinet to apologise to South Africa for the ill-conceived and wasteful giant flag plan.
It seems that sanity has won out in the end, with the project allegedly being put on review. We doubt the poverty cabinet would have seen anything wrong with this enormous flag concept if the DA, civil society, and ordinary South Africans had not opposed this vanity project. It's disgusting that taxpayers' money has already been squandered on a project that should never have been approved in the first place.
How will South Africa ever overcome its horrendous youth unemployment, poverty, and growing inequality if Ministers unanimously agree that spending R22 million to stick a massive pole in the ground with a glow in the dark cloth imprinted with our national flag is a good idea?
The backtracking and putting the giant flag project on review should not be a free pass, and the portfolio committee on Sports, Arts and Culture should summons Minister Nathi Mthethwa to explain the money spent on the feasibility study; give details on money spent on the project thus far - after that he should be fired!
The ANC government has demonstrated its ineptness plenty of times before, but South Africans have had enough, as evidenced by the public outcry.
The multi-million-rand flag is just one of many reasons why President Ramaphosa should have heeded our call to fire his poverty cabinet, because this joke of a project does not help any South African artists and athletes to get the immediate and effective assistance they need from the Department.
Issued by Tsepo Mhlongo, DA Shadow Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, 19 May 2022
