The DA's advert sees a South African flag burn to embers; a symbol, they said, of what would happen should people not vote for them. Image: X
I’m taking bets on my new theory – The Kiffness is funding the DA and in return, the DA creates material for them to write music about.
Personally, the perversion of Midnight Oil’s Beds are Burning is more offensive then burning a South African flag but hey, it’s free speech.
Also, as far as political music commentary goes, their 2019 hit ‘Mmu$i Maimane’ slaps better. Though a praise song for ol’ Mmusi didn’t exactly age well.
ALSO READ: DA’s flag advert is up in flames
But why do we have to be subject to a ridiculous discussion about the symbolism of a flag?
Fred Brownelll, designer of the flag died five years ago but I can confirm that he did not die for this.
We’re debating whether burning of the flag is an act of treason? Sit down. Read a book and learn that it isn’t.
Moreover, how is this even a valid engagement when things are looking the way that they are?
Have we solved energy, education, water, transport, crime and gender-based violence? Methinks not. But sure, let’s focus our energies on a symbolic gesture in a free society.
And why did John Steenhuisen have to drag us down this path? There’s this narrative that the DA wants to take the country back to apartheid.
A lot of people are smart enough to understand that not to be possible but they’re probably already on the DA’s side – so why feed the naysayers with such a visual treat?
For President Cyril Ramaphosa to be calling this an act of treason is just vrot low hanging guava.
The term treason doesn’t seem to have been bandied around when those riots happened, at least not until two years later.
Remember when Zuma was charged with treason for his relationship with the Guptas or more recently when he struck middle fingers at the constitution?
READ MORE: SABC ‘censors’ DA’s burning flag ad, Steenhuisen celebrates its reach
Me neither. But no! Burning the flag; that’s where the focus should be.
It has become an irrelevant pissing match. Nobody is going to win this game of who comes off looking more treasonous than the other, especially when none of them know what treason actually is.
And over a flag? I’m not sure if people are aware of this but we have more than one of them.
You can burn a couple but the majority of them will still exist. It’s not like burning a flag is an act of genocide against six colours and some canvass.
Ramaphosa is right about something; the flag is symbolic.
He might think he can pick and choose what it symbolises, which is why he mentions unity and strength then shies away from things like freedom, expression and years of jurisprudence on the matter.
The flag symbolises incredible freedoms, including those which protect us when we throw a middle finger to the president. 2010 was a crazier time though; Chumani Maxwele being defended by the FW de Klerk Foundation for zapping Jacob Zuma and winning.
Now that’s something that the flag represents and no amount of burning the flag should be able to take that away.
That’s the problem with these people in power; they think that preserving the symbolism will make our lives better but it really doesn’t.
Yes, burning the flag leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth. It does, however, remain an important tool in the arsenal of expression.
The flag itself can only be as sacred as the things it represents and how dare anybody pretend to care about the flag when they’ve thrown their own middle finger to the constitution and its values?
If burning the flag is treasonous, so too should letting kids dies in hospital, unleashing the police on innocent civilians, holding the police back when innocent civilians are at risk, forcing people into darkness and being fat in a country with more than 30% unemployed.
But let’s ignore all that and spend our time fighting over a flag that increasingly symbolises little more than lost hope.
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