Brian’s Bar in Sea Point has caused quite a stir online in South Africa by having an old South African flag on display inside the bar.
A group of Cape Town friends, including an attorney, was arrested earlier this week for “public drunkenness” after they expressed their concern over the flag being on display at Brian’s Bar.
Saturday 26 August 2017 I was arrested by the Sea Point SAPS and charged with being “drunk in public” in terms of the Western Cape Liquor Act.
There is an old adage that “life is made up of choices”, in reductionist millennial speak: #choices.
On this day I made the choice to stand up and publicly speak out against one of the greatest symbols of oppression in our South African history – it had evoked such raw emotions in me seeing the old South African flag bombastically and prominently displayed in Brian’s Bar Sea Point: a middle finger to the fact that it is a source of immeasurable pain and trauma for the majority of this nation.
I made the choice to speak up and let my voice be heard loud and clear in Sea Point, a community that I have learned prefers superficial politeness over real honest dialogue, claiming to not see color but sheltering the slurs uttered under their breath at the dinner table. A neighbourhood in which I’ve lived for 5 years and still made to feel like the hotnot without the economic dompas.
You can read Julies’ full post here.
Another Facebook user commented:
“Most upsetting that the bartender, a person of colour, never missed a beat defending the flag on the wall. More than that, he stood next to his employers and Brian’s Pubs’ complicit patrons. The black and coloured police officers who wrongfully detained us are included here.”



The old South African should be banned in South Africa!!!!