Municipal by-laws clear on posters
Since the posters are not election posters, they need to display stamps from the municipality, according to by-laws.
NELSPRUIT – The dates for mext year’s provincial and national elections have not yet been announced, but voters are being encouraged to obtain identity documents to allow them to vote. Posters to this effect can be seen all over town. Most of them do not carry the municipality’s official stamp of approval.
Mr Joseph Ngala, spokesman for Mbombela Local Municipality, said on Monday that they could not be expected to stamp hundreds of posters. “Even with Robert Gamede’s party, there were thousands of posters about this man’s birthday. Do you expect us to stamp every one of them?”
Many of the numerous posters advertising sport matches at Mbombela Stadium and Innibos are usually also unstamped. Yet the municipal by-laws, as published in the Provincial Gazette Extraordinary on March 31, 2010, are clear on the matter.
They state that a poster must bear an official stamp or sticker from the municipality which displays the expiry date prominently, and may not be displayed without it. The only exceptions are election or referendum posters, which may not be erected before the gazetted date.
While these particular posters are not considered election posters, no political party may erect a poster without first obtaining the written approval of the municipality. They must also pay a deposit.
“Should the political party not conform to the above, the deposit would be used to enable the municipality to remove the advertisement.
“If the owner concerned removes the advertisements as prescribed, deposits are refunded,” the law reads.
Ngala explained that the ANC complied with these provisions. “All due processes were followed,” he said. “The necessary deposits were also paid.”
On being pressed about why the municipality was not applying its own by-laws, Ngala said, “The bottom line is that the ANC wants people to vote for it. It is clearly an electioneering tool.”
