Widespread public outcry over a US$1.5 million flag project meant to be erected at Pretoria’s Freedom Park has led Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa to direct his office to review the process.
Mthethwa said on Thursday that he has over the past few days “followed and taken note of public discourse that has unfolded in respect of the envisaged Monumental Flag.”
He said the diversity of voices around “this important heritage project are a welcome celebration of the country’s vibrant constitutional democracy and the freedoms that must be upheld beyond posterity.”
“It also bodes well for one of the pillars of social cohesion – which is an active citizenry,” he said.
He added: “In upholding this ethos and the inalienable rights of citizens to be heard, I have directed my ministry to review the process related to the Monumental Flag project in its totality.”
According to Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, cabinet sanctioned the controversial flag project, which cost US$67,000 to design.
The Confederation of South African Trade Unions was one of the groups that criticised the projects, saying many people “are being squeezed by the rising cost of living and they do not have the money to go around looking at flag monuments.”
“South Africa has enough tourist attractions and does not need another inept government ministry to waste millions of dollars on a misguided project to attract tourists,” it said.
The ministry said it was entrusted with the mandate to transform South Africa’s heritage landscape by building monuments, memorials, museums, changing colonial and apartheid landmark names as well as the overarching injunction to heal the divisions of the past.
NM/jn/APA