It is illegal to stick posters on walls and electricity boxes
SIVENATHI GOSA
POSTERS defacing the walls of buildings and electricity boxes in and around the Komani central business district is one of the aesthetic challenges facing the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality (EMLM).
Posters vary from funeral notices to advertisements for illegal abortions to the promotion of upcoming events – and no surface seems to be safe from those trying to get some free exposure for their marketing materials.
Municipal spokesman Fundile Feketshane said this week the municipality wanted to inform the public that the practice of posting posters on surfaces in town was illegal and transgressors found to be guilty thereof would be fined.
“The advertising bylaws stipulate how it must be done and people keep breaking the law and do as they please. The community and public safety directorates are engaged in a process of auditing these [illegal posters] and will, in no time, impose fines. We call upon people to understand that the municipality can not let these unlawful activities prevail without consequences.”
He said the EMLM was obliged to adhere to constitutional provisions which ensured that everyone had a right to a clean environment.
EMLM managed the issue of public advertisements to ensure that there was uniformity and standardisation.
“It is in this context that we call on people to visit our community services directorate and ask how advertising may be done to avoid transgressions. We call upon all people [putting up] these adverts to retract [them] immediately and to behave in a manner that does not undermine the work of the municipality .”
Mlungisi resident Mzuvukile Jali said he believed the municipality was trying to keep the streets of Komani clean, but that the posters pasted on walls and poles made the town look filthy.
“These posters are making our town dirty and untidy – you see papers everywhere you go. I wish the municipality would remove them off these buildings, walls and poles.”
Komani resident Johan de Beer, in a recent comment on service delivery on The Rep’s Facebook page, said it was ironic that the municipality was taking no action on fining offenders as their contact details were on the posters.