DA’s flag-burning video does the job

Whatever we think of the DA’s flag-burning advertisement in the run-up to the 29 May elections, it set tongues wagging. That may be a good thing.

PT Barnum, central character in The Greatest Showman on Earth, said there is no such thing as bad publicity.

WATCH: Ramaphosa calls DA’s burning flag ad ‘treasonous’ and ‘totally unacceptable’

Barnum, best known as a 19th-century American circus pioneer, was a publicity expert.

His influential friends included Abraham Lincoln, Queen Victoria, and Mark Twain. Some regard him as the father of modern advertising and showmanship.

Would Barnum have approved of the flag-burning video? Probably. As an attention-grabber.

A more erudite showman was 19th-century playwright and literary genius Oscar Wilde, who quipped: “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

On social media X, the flag-burning advertisement is being talked about, with critics having a field day.

It fits the narrative of those who consider the DA leadership to be tone-deaf. On personal note, I love the SA flag, having worn it with pride while participating in marathons in Soweto, London, Boston and elsewhere.

I have been proud to wear SA flag bow ties at many events, including while hosting former president Nelson Mandela at a Johannesburg Press Club gala dinner.

In the depths of Covid lockdown, I hoisted a large SA flag on our property boundary and do the same for occasional sporting events. SA flag scarves are favourites in winter. And so on.

Given this enduring attachment, I did not take kindly to initial reports that the SA flag was being desecrated. It’s like being touched on your studio. Eina.

However, having watched the promotional video and heard the party’s explanations, I am mollified.

The advert has been effective in drawing attention to the stark choices facing voters.

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The destruction symbolised by the burning flag is what lies ahead if our next government is dominated by the ideas of the ANC, MK and EFF.

People who become inured to the DA’s repeated references to a doomsday coalition may need a jolt to make them think about what this means in practice.

In our cities and towns, we see the ruinous effects of mismanagement. People are suffering as electricity, water, sewerage, roads, health and other services collapse.

Things will become far worse unless we are freed from the ANC-EFF-MK race-based brand of socialism which benefits only a tiny elite.

Ashor Sarupen, first deputy chair of the DA Federal Council, is spot-on when he says an “ANC-EFF-MK coalition will reduce South Africa to ashes and we are only surprised at how many commentators seem to think that such a coalition won’t be a disaster”.

Is it okay to ruin a country, piece by piece, sector by sector, as the ANC has done for 30 years, and yet presume to hold the moral high ground regarding the flag?

Or is it better to use the flag in a once-off warning that worse could come if we vote unwisely? The ANC has desecrated SA’s economy, infrastructure and moral standing.

To rebuild – rescue – SA we must pull together, ditch the ANC and keep the flag flying proudly