[imagesource: iStock]
Why?
Not why are we talking about it, but why would our government spend R22 million installing a flag standing 100 metres in height?
The plans were recently announced by the Department of Sports, Arts, and Culture, and immediately came under fire.
According to The Citizen, its part of the department’s national monumental flag project and will “serve as a national landmark and tourist attraction”:
…the department said that the flag will be a symbol of “nationhood” and the “common identity” of South Africa’s people.
“The flag, as the brand image of the country, needs to be highly recognised by the citizens. Rendering a national flag as a monument of democracy goes a long way in making it highly recognised by the citizens. This has the potential to unite people as it becomes a symbol of unity and common identity,” it said.
I think I speak for all South Africans (aside from those guaranteed to profit from the tender) when I say GTFO.
That R22 million cost can be broken down into R17 million for installation, and another R5 million for geotechnical studies.
If you cup your hand to your ear, you can actually hear the tenderpreneurs rubbing their hands together. It’s the real-life version of this meme:
In all likelihood, we’re going to end up with a 22-metre high flag at a cost of R100 million roughly five years after the targeted date of completion.
I Googled around to find the cost of building an RDP house in this country. Estimates vary greatly, but around R160 000 a house in 2018 is the benchmark I’ll use to crunch the numbers.
What benefits the people of South Africa more – a 100-metre flag or 137 RDP houses?
It comes out of the Department of Sports, Arts, and Culture budget, of course (funded by taxpayers), so let’s put aside talk of building houses and focus on the arts.
Writing for TimesLIVE, Tom Eaton has also put the boot in:
I would have imagined that, when [the department members] were called through to the boardroom and told that they had R22m to spend on a feel-good whatwhat, their first instinct would have been to think: what can we do to make people feel more kindly towards the ministry and the ANC?
And yet, instead of going for the obvious bread-and-games options — a lottery giving away hundreds of thousands of tickets to PSL games; a series of free concerts; a highly publicised talent search, identifying 100 aspiring young artists and cultural practitioners who can’t afford tertiary education and then covering their tuitions — it chose a R22m length of fabric, fluttering gently, pointlessly and mockingly in the breeze.
Sorry, artists who have struggled through the past two years hanging on for dear life.
We can’t help with funding or aid, but see that flag over there? That’s “a symbol of unity and common identity”.
On social media, the reaction to the news has been predictable:
R22 million on a flag.
Imagine how many house you can build with R22m
Student fees debt you can wipe out with R22m
With R22million the ANC could’ve picked any course that will directly benefit our people.
But nah, let’s erect a R22m flag pole and hope tourists will like it.
— Kgopolo (@PhilMphela) May 11, 2022
Never forget that when our government was asked if 100 people could have homes or they could spend R22million on a fokken flag pole, they chose the pole.
— Chester Missing (@chestermissing) May 10, 2022
In a country in economic crisis, riven by deep divisions and battling entrenched corruption & crime, this is the best Minister @NathiMthethwaSA could come up with: blow R22-million on a 100 metre flagpole. https://t.co/CPuIIa46E8
— Julian Rademeyer (@julianrademeyer) May 10, 2022
I put it to you that erecting a 100-meter tall flagpole is the political version of stuffing a ball of socks down the front of your jeans. https://t.co/0YYglANo1S
— Tom Eaton (@TomEatonSA) May 10, 2022
Correct, Tom.
There are numerous museums around the country, serving an actual educational purpose, that could use funding to keep the lights on.
I guess you can get more hands in the cookie jar when you build a giant flag, though.
