President of South Africa Calls the Party’s Burning Flag Campaign Advertisement Treasonous

Only weeks before the country’s elections, which are regarded as the most important since the end of the apartheid system of racial segregation 30 years ago, tensions have been raised by a campaign video for the opposition party in South Africa that depicts the flag of the country in flames.

The Democratic Alliance, the opposition party, claims the advertisement represents what it believes will happen to the nation if the ANC, the ruling party, teams up with two other parties to form a coalition to stay in power following the election on May 29.

The head of the ANC, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, referred to the advertisement as “despicable” and “treasonous.” The video will not be aired, the state broadcaster SABC announced on Thursday, citing a purported “outcry from South Africans.

“This election is about survival,” the narrator of the video, which has been shared on social media and the Democratic Alliance’s pages, says. “Unite to rescue South Africa,” the voice continues. The video then plays backward, and the flag appears undamaged, with “VOTE DA” written over it.
While burning the national flag is legal in South Africa, some argue that the Democratic Alliance’s divisive advertisements from previous elections—in which burning the flag was for many a symbol of their liberation from apartheid go too far.