CAPE TOWN – Parliament’s sports arts and culture committee said it won’t be investigating any processes related to the commissioning of a R20 million monumental flag.
The committee was on Friday presented with a petition of over 30,000 signatories expressing objection to the project.
But the majority of the committee said it was satisfied the project had been stopped, and there was no need for a probe.
The Democratic Alliance’s Tsepo Mhlongo presented a petition of objections to the committee saying the expenditure was unjustifiable when the department had failed to help struggling artists in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our people are going to bed without food, our people are unemployed. Equality, poverty is there, but the minister and the department want to use taxpayers’ money just to justify this so-called social cohesion flag of R22 million,” Mhlongo said.
In a very brief response to the complaint, Minister Nathi Mthethwa said as far as he’s concerned, the subject was closed.
“There’s nothing we’ve not said about this project, we noted the outcry of the public and we responded. We’ve noted what Honourable Mhlongo is bringing but it’s nothing new, really,” he said.
The department said the project was canned as soon as President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered it to be scrapped, and no further work has been done to advance it.
Artmotion S.Africa
