This image was taken from the DA's election campaign document.
The Mail & Guardian revealed on Friday that a leaked draft document, which sets out part of the DA's election campaign, would also use visual imagery to compare the current and apartheid regimes. In one image, the ANC's black green and gold flag was replaced by the colours of the old South African flag.
"The Democratic Alliance has stooped to its latest lows with the blatant distortion of the African National Congress and its insignia in their desperate campaign for legitimacy and relevance … The emblem of the ANC has always been and remains an important visual expression of the hardship, resilience and triumph of the African people. The ANC logo is a symbol of hope and progressive thinking and occupies a special place in the hearts of the majority of South Africans," said the ruling party.
"Changing the colours black, which represents the African majority, green which represents the land and gold which represents the mineral wealth of our country, to the colours of the apartheid regime is an insult to not only the organisation but the efforts of the African majority to build social cohesion and reconciliation in this country," party spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said.
He said that comparing the ANC to the National Party was not only disingenuous, but it was also not factual.
"History can in fact prove that those who today compare us to the National Party, they themselves were part of the South African Defence Force that killed our people. The ANC will respond to these spurious allegations in our engagement with our people. The ANC continues to uphold the highest values of a free, transparent and democratic country, which cannot be comparable to the erstwhile apartheid system.
"The people of South Africa know the history of this country, its struggles and their leaders. It is quite clear that the DA has run out of ideas with which to appeal to the electorate and in their desperation have morphed into clowns. This latest publicity stunt by them remains exactly that, a publicity stunt with no genuine basis to build a South Africa that belongs to all who live in it as evidenced by this latest attack on our history," he said.