South Africans call for apartheid flag ban

The display of apartheid-era flags at recent protests in South
Africa has led to fresh calls for the symbol to banned.

The old flag, officially retired when white minority rule ended
and the first democratic elections were held in 1994, was
brandished by some protesters at a march against farm murders on
Monday.

The controversial demonstration was called after the murder last
week of a white farmer in Klapmuts, a town in the Western
Cape, Al Jazeera reports.

Hundreds of mostly white protesters took to the streets in a
campaign dubbed Black Monday, blocking a major highway to
Johannesburg.

Many on social media found the protest offensive, “not least
because the flag is widely considered a painful symbol of
apartheid”, Garreth Van Niekerk argues in Huffington Post South Africa.

“Comparisons have been drawn between the orange, white and blue
one and the Nazi flag, and there have been calls that displaying it
should be made illegal,” he adds.

FLAGGED: these are the emblems of fallen
#racist regimes which SHOULD get you arrested
#blackMonday pic.twitter.com/ne950J1nEt

— Neal Collins (@nealcol) October 30, 2017

In Germany you face up to three years
imprisonment for brandishing a Nazi flag, why haven’t we outlawed
the old aparthied flag? #BlackMonday

— Tebogo Ditshego (@TebogoDitshego) October 30, 2017

Van Niekerk points out that the flag has been adopted by white
supremacist groups around the world and was worn by Dylann Roof, a white man who killed nine black
churchgoers in South Carolina in 2015.

However, some South Africans argue that the flag is an important
symbol of Afrikaner heritage and history, he says.

In a statement, the ruling African National Congress condemned
the “despicable” and “racist” behaviour displayed at this week’s
protest.

“The racial characterisation of crime and the stoking of racial
hatred by some elements in the campaign through, among others, the
arrogant and offensive display of apartheid South Africa’s flag,
are indicative of an unrelenting yearning for apartheid fascism and
while supremacy,” it said.