Pretoria - Civil rights organisation AfriForum on Friday said it obtained leave to appeal the ruling of the South Gauteng High Court, which found the gratuitous display of the old South African flag amounted to hate speech.
AfriForum said it would take its appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.
“AfriForum is strongly in favour of freedom of speech, but also believes that true hate speech should be fought,” head of policy and action at AfriForum, Ernst Roets, said.
"In terms of the provisions of the Constitution, the fact that the old flag is offensive to some people is not sufficient reason to declare it hate speech.
“This is a positive turn for freedom of speech. We are concerned that it will have far-reaching consequences for freedom of speech – one of the cornerstones of a democratic society – if displaying the 1928 flag is declared hate speech. We will therefore fight this in the highest courts.”
AfriForum insists hate speech occurs “when hatred is propagandised against a group of people based on their identity, for example their race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and when this hate speech is combined with the incitement of injuring the group".
The Equality Court sitting at the South Gauteng High Court last year ruled that the gratuitous display of the old flag amounts to hate speech.
Judge Phineas Mojapelo of the Equality Court at the time added that his ruling extended to public and private areas with the exception where the flag is displayed for “genuine artistic, academic or journalistic expression in the public interest”.
In September the South Gauteng High Court ruled that Roets was not in contempt of court by posting flag pictures hours after the court declared its public display as constituting hate speech.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) had approached the court on an urgent basis in a bid to have both AfriForum and Roets declared as being in contempt of court but the application was dismissed.
However, the NMF has indicated it will appeal the decision by the court to dismiss its application.