Cape Town - The City said it continued to remove political parties’ election posters from lampposts across the metro – more than a week after the deadline passed.
More than 500 posters have been taken down by the City’s Environmental Management Department since June 18.
City spokesperson Luthando Tyhalibongo said once removed, the posters could be collected by the political parties on payment of a removal charge.
Otherwise, the City’s appointed contractor would arrange for the posters to be disposed of for recycling.
“Although the majority of the posters should have been taken down by this week’s end, the City anticipates that residents may still report stray posters from time to time.
“We pay our contractor R135 for each tied poster, and that’s precisely what we get back from the political party. There’s no profit,“Tyhalibongo said.
The African Transformation Movement (ATM) said it had taken steps to comply with the City’s regulations.
Its national head of volunteers, Sisa Mphambaniso, said: “We have dispatched people to remove all posters in areas we can’t reach. We hope our voters help us. We will make sure that by the end of this weekend, all posters in the province will be removed.”
ANC leader of the opposition in the provincial legislature, Khalid Sayed, said the party wasn’t aware of any ANC posters still on poles, and would act when notified.
“The ANC in the province notes the statement by the City about the removal of posters.
“We will address the situation after we are notified, but we have made it clear that our structures and posters must be taken down under the City’s regulations,” he said.
Matthew George, ActionSA Western Cape spokesperson said their teams also responded when they were notified of posters still on display.
“ActionSA has made every effort to ensure that posters flighted across the City and all other municipalities, have been removed within the stipulated period.
“We have flagged incidents where our teams may have missed locations, but we immediately responded by deploying teams to ensure that what remains is taken down,” George said.
The City said residents could notify it of election posters by emailing the street location and suburb to [email protected]