AfriForum wants apartheid flag ban case thrown out of court
The apartheid flag has sparked debate among South Africans. This is after the Nelson Mandela Foundation asked the courts to declare public and private display of the flag unlawful.
AfriForum is leading the backlash against the move. The parties are squaring it off in the Equality Court in Johannesburg.
A symbol of the white supremacy and oppression for millions of South Africans. There's now debate whether it still has a place in post-apartheid South Africa.
There's now a tug-of-war between the Nelson Mandela Foundation and groups that want to preserve the flag.
Lobby group AfriForum wants the court application to have the gratuitous display of the apartheid flag banned dismissed.
AfriForum says the court does not have the power to make a declaration of constitutional invalidity.
It's denied being in court to defend the apartheid flag, saying the move is in defense of freedom of expression.
The organisation's lawyer Mark Oppenheimer rejects assertion that using the apartheid flag constitutes hate speech.
He says it's important for people to be allowed to express themselves freely even if their views or symbols may be offensive, unless they're accompanied by violence.
AfriForum believes the matter is not ready for trial and should be dismissed.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation and the South African Human Rights Commission made the application to have the flag outlawed.
The legal battle followed the use of the old flag during an AfriForum-organised Black Monday protest against farm murders in 2017.
The Mandela Foundation and the Human Rights Commission says the flag stands for racial domination and has no place in democratic South Africa.
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