Hastings Mqhayi: The man who claims to be SA flag designer

While South Africans celebrate 25 years of Heritage Day, a day of embracing our diverse cultures and unique traditions, Hastings Mqhayi felt that it was the right time to publicly claim that it was he who designed the South African flag, and not the late Frederick Brownell.

Who is Hastings Mqhayi? What we know about the EC man

We dug a little deeper on Hastings Mqhayi and found that his rumblings about the creative accreditation of the SA flag date back many years.

The artist’s disgruntlement with being cast off and forgotten, in the shadow of Brownell who — for the longest time — has been credited as the flag’s sole designer, has featured prominently as a nagging frustration in his successful career.

According to a 2013 Rhodes University blog post, written by Bandile Magibili, Mqhayi can be credited for designing the South African Democratic Teacher’s Union (SADTU) logo, the logo of the House of Traditional Leaders in the Eastern Cape, and the 2004 South African Games logo among others.

Mqhayi’s account of how the flag was designed

Moreover, Mqhayi has remained grounded on the fact that he contributed 70% to the design of the South African flag. Speaking to Magibili about six years ago, Mqhayi revealed that the Y-shape in the flag was his sole contribution which, he claims, was influenced by the Jamaican flag.

According to Brownell’s account (he was the State Herald at the South African Bureau of Heraldry at the time), after penning down rough drafts of the flag — Three arms that came in from the flagpole side of the flag (the “hoist”) and became one — at a flag conference in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1993, he pocketed the idea, not knowing that he would revisit it again.

“My mind started wandering. And then it struck me – aren’t we looking for convergence and unification? I was struck by the extent it resonated with what Mandela had in mind. ‘Yes, it might work!’ I thought,” Brownell told BBC News in a 2014 interview about how he came up with the design of the flag.

However, according to Mqhayi’s account of events, this is not exactly how the SA flag came about.

“They collected 6 000 works and not a single artwork was discovered. Seven days later, the chairperson of the board came up with the work and said it’s the right one and that piece was actually the one that I designed. I read recently from the newspaper that he says he took three minutes to design,” Mqhayi claimed.

His proof? Look no further than Roelf Meyer and Ramaphosa

Mqhayi argued that he is not in the business of discrediting people who are no longer alive to defend themselves. However, he urged the media to accept this alternative as the truth and stop perpetuating information that was inaccurate, suggesting that Brownell was not the rightful designer of the SA flag.

It is on #HeritageDay where artists such as Mr Thembani Hastings Mqhayi feel the deepest loss and grief over his creative work of designing the New South African Flag, a design which was erroneously credited to the now late Mr Fred Brownell. @NathiMthethwaSA we still waiting! pic.twitter.com/nhXv7cFGoj

— #SAFlagFraud (@Kulenzima) September 24, 2019

To further reiterate his claims, Mqhayi stated that Roelf Meyer, a former National Party member who played a prominent role in the negotiations to end the apartheid, and Cyril Ramaphosa, could vouch for him as they were both part of the selection process of the SA flag all those years ago.

Mqhayi maintained the same stance he’s always held when asked what was in it for him in this brazen claim. As he had stated in his 2013 interview with Magibili, the artist stated that money was of no interest to him. It was accreditation that he craved, the recognition of his creative contribution to the design of the flag.

“I don’t need money as compensation but an acknowledgement from the artist who took all the credit for the design or a retraction of my contribution,” were his sentiments in 2013.