Political parties are required to remove their election posters within 14 days of the election — by 12 June 2024. Fines are R100 per poster.

It may look like an insignificant point of law. It is not. It is about our natural and living environment, about visual pollution, and frankly about how many of us want to look at the faces of politicians for months on end.

Report posters that are not removed

It is up to citizens to be active and to complain where political parties do not take their posters down, whatever the party’s standing. It is not the responsibility of the municipality to remove them, even where the party in question runs that municipality. This is not a cost to be carried by the taxpayer.

Selective application

There has been a suggestion in the recent past that in some towns and cities this rule is enforced unequally — that posters come down faster in some areas than in others. It may be that residents in some areas complain more. It may be that posters, like litter and unkempt verges, are seen in some areas to affect property values and appeal. Either way, the law should not be applied by postcode.

The small stuff is the test

Political parties are given a fair chance to use public space to campaign. They pay to put posters up. They need to pay to take them down.

It is up to us as citizens and as civil society to see how committed to the law the parties actually are. If they will not sweat the small stuff, what should we expect from them on the big stuff?

Deadline looms for political parties to clear election campaign material — IOL.

Shared by the South African Muslim Network (SAMNET) in the interest of accountability and our environment.