Public Display of Old South African Flag is Hate Speech - Court

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has unanimously ruled that any gratuitous public display of the old South African flag constitutes hate speech, unfair discrimination on the basis of race, and harassment in terms of equality legislation, writes Tania Broughton for GroundUp. However, the court amended a similar ruling handed down by the Equality Court, which had also outlawed the display of the flag in private homes.

"The old flag is an awful reminder of the anguish suffered by millions of people under apartheid South Africa. As stated in the founding affidavit of the South African Human Rights Commission (also an applicant in the Equality Court), the old flag represents precisely that racist and repressive regime and the dehumanising ideologies espoused during its rule - the racial superiority of white South Africans and the corresponding inferiority of black South Africans," Judge Schippers said.