Apartheid-era South African flag in Invictus

Cafe Society
1

I was watching Invictus a little while ago on DVD. During the final match, I noticed the old, Apartheid-era South African flag being waved. I actually backed up the disk and paused it just to be absolutely sure, but, really, there aren’t any other flags that one could be mistaken for at the resolution I saw it.

Now the weird part: This is in no way a spoiler, because it was not a plot point. There it was, big as all outdoors, waving right alongside the new post-Apartheid South African flags and the bonny blue New Zealand flags, and absolutely nobody mentioned it.

So, I suppose my question is twofold: Was this a mistake by Eastwood, and could that flag have been used in that context at that time?

2

No mistake, and definitely yes, it was used, and mostly as deliberate provocation.

3

Although it’s not used that way by everyone…

4

Thanks for the reply, but now it seems very odd that it wasn’t a plot point during the match.

5

I think it was downplayed to provide a more inspirational, “rainbow nation” story. IIRC, it was mentioned in the source book, Playing The Enemy