R22 million – that’s the figure placed on the monument flag project as proposed by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture set to soar in Pretoria.
How could a flag cost so much? R17 million is set to go to installation, while the “feasibility study” will constitute R5 million as per Daily Maverick.
A grandeur act of symbolism or an overt display of how money isn’t respected by certain departments? Critics and praise-singers have both shed light on the situation, but few are defending the project more than Minister Nathi Mthethwa of the department in his appearance before the portfolio committee today.
According to Mthethwa, as per EWN, the flag is not only “a part of his department’s mandate” but also a visual “break from colonialism and apartheid”.
However, is any symbolism worth the finances of this scale, no matter how meaningfully it’s positioned? Part of the critics is Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATO), who have expressed that the project is a “pointless vanity project”.
Nationalism and patriotism are some cornerstones that provide the all-important link between the public and the government, a reminder that we are all “under one flag” so to speak. However, especially in a digital era with so much access to information, couldn’t the department consider a heritage project marking post-independence narratives a little more creatively than a giant flag, and use the funds in a way that would actually benefit people’s lives, or allow them to reap some sort of rewards? asks Cape {town} Etc’s Ashleigh Nefdt.
The department claims that sub-mandates will include Freedom Park in Pretoria (where the flag is set to fly) to be turned into a”heritage landscape” where museums and monuments will be built.
One can only question the mandate that prescribes a massive flag as the only way to commemorate the history of this country, with the all-important question: What is the flag actually for, and why is the department determined that this it is imperative?
Given the current socio-economic turbulence in the world right now, let alone South Africa, the flag comes not only at a time where a few millions to spare seems absurd but where the expression of democratic values should come in the form of actual assistance to those in strife.
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Picture: Cape {town} Etc gallery
