Steve Hofmeyr under fire over ‘old Apartheid’ flag comments

Steve Hofmeyr has once again landed in hot water, after comments he made about the old South African being flown at the Black Monday protests went viral, and led to calls of a boycott against the singer.

It all started on Monday when Steve got into a heated argument with TV personality Maps Maponyane over the flying of the flag and the singing of Die Stem, which Maps said caused a lot of hatred. 

Steve hit back saying that calling peoples' pride and cultural symbol was the hate that they were marching against. 

The Afrikaans singer added that the outrage over the anthem and flag had distracted from the real reasons of the protest.

“Using flags and symbols are secondary. Or consider the murder rate under our new flag! Rather get used to a diverse nation. Unity is a myth. Tolerance is everything. And a solution to this scourge is primary. Black Monday was unusually accomplished, peaceful and civil. And flags and anthems not unconstitutional. Develop a stomach for constitutional things that offend you. Welcome to the new belated South Africa. Not for sissies. Develop an African hide for what offends. This or war (sic).” he wrote. 

Steve was dragged by social media users for his comments, with the hashtag #BlockSteveHofmeyr topping the trends list. 

Steve told TshisaLIVE that he stood by his comments and shrugged off the outrage.

"Black Monday was about farm murders, not flags. To avoid actions of genocide I will never rip from a culture whatever he deifies as symbols and collective habits.  I will never force criminalisation, and it is a crime to make people do unconstitutional things, such as the prohibition of symbols. I sing Die Stem because it is constitutional. The end of tolerance is the beginning of war. It's a general wisdom and is valid anywhere," he said.