Election posters still up in Pinetown

IT has been eight months since the 2014 national election; however, street poles in the Pinetown area are still decorated with tarnished A1-size election posters.

In a letter submitted to the Highway Mail last year, former ward 18 councillor, Tim Brauteseth, said the erection and removal of these posters is governed by the following policy: the political parties must pay R100 for every ward within which they intend to erect posters. This fee covers the entire election process, starting with voter registration and ending with the election itself.

With a limit of 800 posters per ward, all posters were supposed to be removed within 30 days of the completion of the election.

The policy further indicates that any poster found erected in the wrong place or not removed within the prescribed period will result in a fine of R50 per poster to the political party concerned.

KZN IEC communications officer, Thabani Ngwira, said the hanging up of posters is regulated through by-laws of the concerned municipalities. In this case it would be eThekwini Metro. A contract is entered into between the municipality and the concerned political party.

According to Ngwira, the IEC has no regulations or stipulations with regards to the election posters.

Attempts to get comments from the eThekwini Municipality and an ANC representative were unsuccessful at the time of going to print.