Some election posters still up — four months on

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More than four months after political parties were supposed to take down their election posters, tattered posters are still hanging from poles around East London.

The elections were held on May 29.

Months before the hotly contested elections, political parties went all out, putting up posters as part of their electioneering campaigns.

According to the Buffalo City Metro’s bylaws, the parties were supposed to take down their posters within 21 days, but in East London there are still peeling posters on street lights and electricity poles.

By Wednesday morning, a handful of posters of  ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa urging people to vote for the party were still up. But they had been taken down by 4pm.

On the North East Expressway and in Parkside, EFF posters bearing the face of party leader Julius Malema were still up.

There were also posters from  ActionSA, the DA and RISE Mzansi in parts of East London including Ziphunzana and Stirling, among other areas.

In June, the Electoral Commission said regulations relating to election posters depended on the bylaws of each municipality and it was their responsibility to implement their bylaws in this regard.

On Wednesday, BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said not removing posters was a violation of the outdoor advertising bylaw and policy.

This carried a fine of R426 per poster.

Ngwenya said some of the parties had been made aware of the violations but the municipality had no contact details for some parties.

No fines had been issued to the parties that had not removed their posters, he said.

“According to us, posters have been removed with just a few that were mistakenly left out but parties did remove posters,” Ngwenya said.

EFF provincial secretary Simthembile Madikizela said they were not aware of any posters that had not been removed.

“Our approach is to immediately remove them after every event and activity.

“It’s the first [time the] provincial office is made aware of posters that are not removed and we will investigate the exact location and ensure they are removed,” Madikizela said.

ActionSA provincial leader Athol Trollip said he was not aware that any of their posters were still on display.

“We have not been penalised by the Buffalo City Metro.

“We erected hundreds of thousands of posters across the province and it’s a likely eventuality that some will be missed when removing them.

“We’ve removed 98% of our posters. We are still removing them whenever we see them or are alerted to them,” Trollip said.

RISE Mzansi chief organiser Makashule Gana said his party was constantly on the lookout for its posters and it was regrettable that some were still up.

“We, therefore, call on supporters to remove any posters that they may come across; at the same time, we have alerted our supporters in and around BCM to look out for posters that they might have missed.

“We are nonetheless confident that the majority of our posters have been taken down and where posters may still be up, these are isolated incidents.

“As we grow and build as an organisation, we learn and improve from election to election to perfect systems and processes,” Gana said.

DA MPL Leander Kruger said they would remove any remaining  posters on Wednesday. 

“We appointed a service provider to remove posters.

“We were unaware that some posters have not been removed, the vast majority though have been removed.

“We will remove those posters that they may have inadvertently missed, today.

“The assurance from our service provider, and our own oversights, was that this was largely complied with,” he said.

The non-removal of election posters after the elections has been a usual feature across the country.

In November 2021, it was reported  that more than a week after the poll there were still a number of posters hanging from telephone  poles in various parts of East London.

At the time, Ngwenya said that parties were given a maximum of 14 days after elections to remove their campaign posters or face penalties.

The ANC had not replied to questions by the time of publication.

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