Media Statement
Groblersdal Magistrates Court Incident
30 January 2024
The Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services is gravely disturbed by the events that unfolded outside the Groblersdal Magistrates Court. The attempts to forcefully enter Court premises by protesters is condemned by the Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services. Access to Court and peaceful protest is permitted in our country but it must be in line with the directives of the Court.
Minister Lamola, said “we applaud the SAPS for swiftly arresting all the protesters that attempted to block or enter the Court forcefully. This has restored the dignity of the Court and sends a message that our Courts cannot be be play ground for lawlessness.”
We also condemn the display of the Vierkleur Flag (a flag which features three horizontal stripes of red, white, and blue with a vertical green stripe at the hoist) by protestors is deeply troubling, as it evokes memories of a time when discrimination and inequality prevailed.
We have noted, with concern, images in the media of a group of protestors brandishing the Vierkleur Flag (a flag which features three horizontal stripes of red, white, and blue with a vertical green stripe at the hoist). The Vierkleur is a flag that was used by the old Boer Republic of the Transvaal which existed in the 2nd half of the 19th century until the Boers defeat in the Anglo-Boer War. The Vierkleur Flag, is a symbol that represents a bygone era of colonisation and aparthied. This flag holds historical significance, but it also carries connotations of a time when black people were denied their basic rights.
In August 2019 the Equality Court, sitting also as the High Court of South Africa (South Gauteng), ruled that the display of the old apartheid flag constitutes hate speech in South Africa.
The Court held that the Constitutional Court has time and again emphasized the importance of historical context when considering human dignity, especially the history of racialized inequality in South Africa.
The Court further stated that those who display the old flag –
“choose deliberately not only to display the apartheid discriminatory, divisive and oppressive flag; they also consciously and deliberately choose not to display the new democratic all-uniting non-racial flag. They choose an oppression symbol over a liberation symbol. What then is their objective intention? They intend to incite and awaken feelings of white supremacy against black people. They know or ought to know that other oppression prone white people will be incited to recall and long for days when white people exercised oppressive power over black people – with the sanction of an oppressive and unjust legal system. They wish to remind black people of the oppression, humiliation, indignity and dehumanisation that they moved away from and do not wish to relive or return to. They are therefore correctly described as demonstrating ‘total rejection of tolerance, reconciliation and all values underlying the Constitution’. They deliberately chose to reject reconciliation and embrace hatred and oppression because they incite polarised feelings.”
By brandishing the Vierkleur flag, individuals are openly rejecting the core values of democracy, equality, and the Constitution. This act is reminiscent of the old apartheid flag and cannot be tolerated. The Ministry firmly denounces the waving of this flag and will take decisive measures to ensure that the South African Human Rights Commission thoroughly examines this matter.
Enquiries
Mr. Chrispin Phiri
Ministry Spokesperson
+27(0) 81 781 2261
Issued by the Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services
