No need to flag the DA

An advertising spot that shows a SA flag in flames to represent our country’s destruction by the ANC. What an outrage… We should all unequivocally condemn this monstrous slur on the part of the DA.

For starters, it’s untrue. We all know that long before the official symbol of the nation could go up in a puff of smoke, an ANC comrade would have stolen it.

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The television spot is a computer-generated depiction of a paper flag lying on what appears to be a grill.

Over 30-odd seconds – as an off-camera speaker warns that “life will only get worse” under a “coalition of corruption” between the ANC, a violent EFF and the Zuma faction – the paper spontaneously ignites.

It crisps to ashes as the voice intones: “This election is about survival.” Then, in response to the words “unite to rescue South Africa, vote DA,” the flag is miraculously restored.

Perhaps not the high point of creative originality, but it’s certainly a succinct encapsulation of the stark choice confronting voters on 29 May.

Our country is a wreck, the only point of contention of how, by whom and over what period it conceivably might be resuscitated.

Despite this dire background, the anti-DA backlash has been fierce. Ramaphosa wrote on the social media platform X that the ad was “treasonous”.

“The national flag is a sacred symbol of our unity and existence as a nation and to burn it is despicable.

Any organisation that commits such an act … is an organisation that seeks to destroy our country, that seeks to destroy our country’s unity and collective identity.”

Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Zizi Kodwa foresees dire consequences. He said his department have been instructed to provide urgent input on legal recourse against this “abhorrent desecration” of a national symbol.

All this huffing and puffing should be taken with a pinch of salt. These are the closing weeks of the highly contested general election and one must also allow for the media’s insatiable appetite for faux outrage, especially when it comes to the official opposition.

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

There’s a little bit of irony here. The opposition parties in general and the DA in particular seem to love waving the flag. DA speakers invariably have the flag on the podium at any public event. In contrast, the ANC at its party events only displays the ANC colours and ANC flags.

Of course, neither flying the flag or not flying it is a reliable indicator of political sincerity or national feeling.

We have a flag that is so striking that in the 30 short years of its existence it has become one of the most identifiable flags in the world.

Funnily enough, like the democratic transition itself, it is a happy accident, the result of the boer maak ’n plan national ethos aligning with pressing circumstances.

The ANC had wanted a clean break from the past and instead of entrusting the task to Fred Brownell, the state herald of the time, it held a national design competition which drew tens of thousands of entries. Unfortunately, they were atrocious.

Within weeks, Brownell produced a flag that blends with genius the politically significant colours of our history. It was an instant hit.

However, the country and nation of which the Brownell flag so caught the mood in 1994, is not the country and nation of 2024.

That is what the DA advert pithily captures, which is probably why the ANC and its media apologists are so put out.