by Lee Rondganger
Durban - You cannot drive down a road in any part of Durban and not see an election poster. And while the eThekwini Municipality’s by-laws on posters are relaxed for political parties during an election period, many parties are still running foul of them.
Posters have been illegally erected on traffic lights, trees, freeways and even on statues – in blatant contravention of the city’s by-laws.
According to these regulations election posters should only be a standard size – A1 – and be confined to electricity lamp poles. None are allowed on trees, bridges, robots, road signs or walls, and should not be posted at a height less than 2.5 metres.
The city also only permits flying banners on Ruth First Highway (M4 North), Inkosi Albert Luthuli Highway (M4 South) and the beachfront (OR Tambo Parade) for just three weeks, while election material posters and flying banners are allowed on Higginson Highway.
A drive around Durban by the Daily News, however, discovered that parties have erected posters on bridges (along the N3 near the Berea), have put up posters on traffic poles and in the city, while a political party has even put posters on statues.
The EFF has also plastered a bridge in eManzimtoti with its red posters. They have gone up on the bridge near the Galleria shopping centre, on the road near the fire station, and en route to KwaMakutha.
The bridge is one of 10 that the local tourism body, Sapphire Coast Toti Tourism, has painted blue to fit in with its name, and the chairwoman, Kim McCarthy, is furious.
“We had all the paint donated to us and the colour was suggested by the municipality.
“It is regrettable that a bunch of hooligans in political parties can do just what they want. This is vandalism and it’s improper,” she fumed.
Now, the tourism body will have to apply to the municipality’s signage department to call in its contracted company which removes illegal signs.
“Then we are going to have to try and get more paint to fix what has been damaged from the posters,” she said.
eThekwini Municipal spokeswoman, Tozi Mthethwa, said under the municipality’s policy, parties found to have transgressed the city’s by-laws could be fined up to R964 for each poster.
She said, however, that the City had not received any reports of political parties hanging their election posters on statues or on traffic poles.
“If such cases were to be reported, metro police officers would be sent to remove the posters, and the relevant unit would be tasked to fine the liable party,” Mthethwa said.
She said the city had in recent months been removing many illegal posters hung on traffic light poles across the city as part of its weekly by-law enforcement operations.
“During a recent operation, metro police officers removed more than 60 illegal posters. The operation was conducted after the city noted a growing trend in illegal abortion posters, illegal clinic posters and unauthorised event advertisements being placed in various areas across the city,” she said.
All posters must be removed within 30 days of the National Elections, and 14 days in the event of by-elections.
ANC eThekwini regional secretary, Bheki Ntuli, said the party trained its volunteers and members where they were allowed to put their posters. He said they had not received any complaints from the city, and if they did, they would remove any errant posters.
“We are the governing party and we understand the by-laws. We make every effort to abide by the law, and if there are some instances where posters have been put up incorrectly, we will take them down,” he said.
Repeated attempts to get hold of EFF KZN leader, Vuyo Mkhize, were unsuccessful. - Additional Reporting Barbara Cole