NATHI MTHETHWA IS BLIND TO SA’S HARDSHIPS

LISTENING to Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa justifying why his department wants to construct a R22million monumental flag, you would be easily fooled into believing South Africa has no other pressing crises that need his urgent attention.

You’d be convinced our arts industry is not on its knees and artists are not going to bed on empty stomachs and having their cars and homes repossessed. You’d not think that some of the country’s theatres have permanently closed shop due to a lack of government support and the looting of money meant to help them overcome the challenges the Covid-19 pandemic presented.

You would also believe our sports facilities, especially in rural areas and townships, are world class – if they exist at all – and our athletes are not having to fund-raise in order to take part in international competitions.

You’d even forget that just last year we were mourning the deaths of netball players Phelo Charles, Indiphile Mfengu and Thabisile Maxikika and coach Nocamagu Mvunyiswa, who were killed while travelling from the Eastern Cape to Cape Town by bus instead of flying and who had been expected to play upon finishing their almost 11-hour journey.

Mthethwa would want us to believe that building a 100m-tall flag at Freedom Park in Pretoria is part of “memorialising the country’s democracy”.

“It is quite a clear marker of a break with colonialism and apartheid. It epitomises democratic and other values,” he said.

Mthethwa needs no reminder he has dismally failed to have the statues of colonialists and apartheid architects removed from public spaces.

If anything, spending more than R20m on a flag in a country where most citizens live from hand to mouth, where unemployment is unacceptably high, shows how divorced this current crop of leaders are from the real struggles South Africans face.

Instead of the flag project, he could reprioritise the funds to benefit NGOs promoting social cohesion and the values of our democracy.

If anyone in the government sees this expenditure as a brilliant plan, then we have an even bigger problem.

If he proceeds with his suspicious plan, then it would further confirm the Ramaphosa government is not as caring as it claims to be, and voters should keep that in mind when elections come.