Cape Town - The Department of International Relations and Co-operation is investigating reports that a small town in Australia refused to remove an old South African flag on public display.
The town of Cooma, in New South Wales, displays the flag commonly associated with apartheid South Africa as one of 28 flags on the town’s “Avenue of Flags”. The flags honour countries who helped build the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme which was completed in 1959.
ABC News Australia reported on Monday that a South African expatriate, David Hughson, first petitioned the local council to replace the flag four years ago. Now the South African High Commission in Canberra has joined Hughson and his supporters in calling for the flag to be replaced before Nelson Mandela’s birthday on Thursday.
ABC’s report quotes the mayor of Cooma, Dean Lynch, as saying that the council “is not here to make any political statement... this is just a fact of history that that was the flag at the time”.
Lynch apparently turned down the High Commission’s request and said that the old flag was there to stay.
In an interview with the news network, Hughson said that he was disappointed to see that the flag was not replaced, adding that it had come to represent apartheid.
Ray Sithole, the High Commission’s counsellor, agreed: “The flag represents nothing other than a degrading, divisive and inhuman system, a system that was declared a crime against humanity by the United Nations. Whoever flies that flag would be not doing any justice to the cause of democracy, good governance and the rule of law in South Africa.”
Owing to the time difference, the Cape Argus could not source original comment from the South African High Commission at the time of going to print. Department spokesman Clayson Monyela said that he had not heard of the incident. The department’s communications office promised to respond after investigating.
The Yugoslavian flag (country no longer exists), Canadian flag with the Union Jack (now has the maple leaf) and a US flag with 49 stars (has had 50 states for decades) are also on display.
Cape Argus