The local government poll has come and gone — and all we’re left with are the election posters, hanging like rotten fruit from telephone poles. When asked how many posters the African National Congress printed for the elections, Steyn Speed, an ANC spokesperson, said: “That’s not the sort of information we release publicly.”
He said that the posters have not been taken down yet, but will be as soon as the “election workers have had time to rest” in the next couple of days. The ANC posters won’t be discarded but will be kept for the next election.
The Democratic Alliance, however, started removing their estimated 500Â 000 election posters on Thursday. Ryan Coetzee, a DA spokesperson, said: “They are going to come down almost immediately. We have a plan in place to have them taken down. It’s quite a big job, but we usually do a very good job of getting the posters down.”
He said that all the posters will be kept “because the backing boards are valuable, and let me add, the property of the DA. We’ve got an election manager in every constituency and every municipality, who hires people, uses activists and does whatever they can to get the posters down.”
Papas Mabuse from Vereeniging is one of three men hired by the DA to take down all its posters in Johannesburg. “It’s going to take 10 days,” he said.
Hanieff Hoosein, the Independant Democrats’ (ID) campaign manager, told the M&G Online that they have already started taking down posters in different parts of the country. The ID printed more or less 300Â 000 to 400Â 000 posters, he said.
“We’ve started taking down posters in the Cape Metro, Durban Metro and some of the other municipalities,” said Hoosein. The ID uses supporters, party members, and various companies to get the posters down.
Willie Spies, the spokesperson for the Freedom Front Plus (FF+), said 50Â 000 posters were printed for the elections and will be taken down “from Friday onwards”. He told the M&G Online that party volunteers will be taking the posters down.
“We will store them and use them again. We will use the back side of the posters, but the pictures will change,” he said. He added that the FF+ will store the posters in nine different places in each province for future use.
Lydia Young, the Independant Electoral Commission (IEC) media liaison officer, told M&G Online that the IEC does not regulate political party posters as regards when they should be removed after an election. However, Cristine Walters, one of the Johannesburg city councillors, said that all political parties have 15 days to remove their campaign posters.
“There’s a certain by-law that regulates election posters. There will be a penalty after 15 days, and all political parties are supposed to remove the posters. The by-laws are very strict.”