Rumpus over old SA flag shifts the focus from the real #BlackMonday

6 November 2017

Solidarity Chairperson Flip Buys said today, a week after the #BlackMonday protests, that attempts by politicians to mistakenly represent the old flag as the symbol of this day, shift the focus away from the country’s real problems of violence.

“White South Africans are not hankering for the old flag’s past, but are looking forward to a future without violence, corruption, misappropriation of funds and state capture,” Buys said.

Buys contends that those who had flown old flags at the gatherings only constituted 1% of fringe figures, while the other 99% of the participants, had carried the true symbols of the occasion – the wearing of black clothes and the carrying of white crosses. Opportunist journalists, however, joined in by circulating archaic photos to undermine the credibility of the occasion, but in the process they undermined their own credibility. 

Buys also said that it was typical that politicians had more to say about the old flag while not saying a word about the thousands of murders and attacks that occur in this country every year. “Clearly, the country’s leaders do not understand the feelings and emotions aroused by farm murders and farm attacks. Hence their attempts to see to it that a debate on these incidents and the need that has developed among ordinary South Africans to address those issues, does not take place,” Buys explained.

Buys explained that banning the old flag would have the opposite and undesirable effect. Loyalty will only be achieved if government inspires trust rather than banning a flag that belongs to the past.”

Issued by Francois Redelinghuys, Spokesperson, Solidarity, 6 November 2017