The Democratic Alliance's use of the ANC logo on the backdrop of the old South African flag continues to create controversy – now Rhett Martyn, the visual artist behind the image, which was featured on the cover of last week's Mail & Guardian, has taken umbrage at the use of his work without his permission.
The image was designed towards the end of 2011 in response to the debate around the Protection of State Information Bill (also known as the Secrecy Bill) and has circulated on the internet for the past few years. It surfaced recently as part of a draft DA presentation put together by the party's Western Cape region for its election campaign strategy in the run-up to next year's polls.
As part of its campaign, the DA hopes to draw parallels between the ANC and the old National Party, by comparing, for example, Hector Pieterson with Andries Tatane or the Sharpeville massacre with the violence at Marikana.
Rhett Martyn claims the DA used his art work without his permission.
Martyn said he was annoyed because the image had been taken out of context – it was originally designed as commentary on the Bill but had been "reappropriated to support peripheral views".
"My main problem with the way that the image is being appropriated is that, first, it was done without my consent," he said. "For me that breaches serious issues around the way individuals and artists are treated by larger entities, corporate or political."
He said the image was never created to endorse a particular party.
"When they appropriated the image … suddenly it was as though I had become the poster boy for the DA," he said. "It does worry me, to be honest."
Martyn said that, although it was not widely known online that he was the creator of the image, it could still be traced back to him and the DA should have asked his permission before using it.
"I would like to request a formal apology. I think it would be noble of them to do that and I think it would serve them … It's blatant sloppiness on their behalf and I think they should apologise for it," he said.
But the DA's national spokesperson, Mmusi Maimane, said the presentation was not an official DA document and that there was therefore no need for the party to apologise.
"The Western Cape legislature has not officially adopted a campaign with that image in it," he said. "That document was used as part of a PowerPoint presentation to make a specific point. It's never been ratified by federal officials, neither has any permission been given for that image to be used in any formal publication."
Although the document was apparently due to be discussed at a conference on the party's election campaign next month, Maimane said he had not seen it on the agenda for the meeting or among the discussion documents.
"I suppose there's a question of referencing but that's not a conversation about the DA; it's about protection of images and something to do with Google … The conversation about the use of images is a separate conversation [related to law-making]," he said.