Did the DA go too far with advert?

With less than three weeks until the general election, the burning of the South African flag in a Democratic Alliance (DA) advert just won’t go away.

A storm in a tea cup or a polarising message that could hurt their support?

ALSO READ: ‘Flag is Burning’: The Kiffness sets election campaign trail ablaze with ANC parody [Video]

There’s mixed feelings. Yesterday, the SABC banned the advert – one day after former ANC Tshwane chair Dr Kgosi Maepa opened a case of crimen injuria and treason against DA leader John Steenhuisen.

Maepa said: “Burning it is like peeing on it. I speak on behalf of millions who cannot be at this police station to lay these charges.

“We can’t have insecure and violent people during elections. We have credible democratic institutions.

“They should protect us against such inflammatory videos that evoke emotions that are not supposed to be there in a peaceful election.”

We think Maepa is going a bit far, but the burning of an image of the flag was not a bright idea.

There were so many other ways to portray the message that the ANC has “led the country to ruin”.

ALSO READ: SABC ‘censors’ DA’s burning flag ad, Steenhuisen celebrates its reach [Video]

That wasn’t one of them. Political analyst Khanya Vilakazi got it spot-on: “It’s a stunt. Burning the flag is not illegal, but it is disrespectful and inappropriate. However, it’s the silly season where any form of clickbait is going to work.”

Former DA leader Mmusi Maimane, the Build One South Africa’s leader, didn’t hold back. He said: “All it ends up doing is unstitching the fabric of our society and dividing us. There is high-fiving inside the organisation, as any publicity is good. To what lengths are you willing to dig deep to create sensation?”

South Africans are a proud and patriotic bunch. Regardless of the state of the nation, the majority wouldn’t support burning the national flag.

The DA should have thought about that before trying to be too clever.