FOLLOWING an article about the DA’s election posters mysteriously disappearing in the Highway area, the political party conducted its own investigation and have reason to believe the election posters were stolen.
According to Tim Brauteseth, MP leader for north central Durban Constituency, Ward 18 councillor, Mel Fraser Brauteseth, has opened a case at the Westville Police Station but the really shocking thing about this case is that the DA has discovered posters advertising an eThekwini Municipality business fair between the 15 and 17 July were pasted over stolen DA posters.
“A number of these boards were discovered in my constituency in Verulam. I have attached a picture of one these posters. If you look closely at the right hand side you will see that it is a DA poster beneath. This is the smoking gun,” said Brauteseth.
He said Melanie’s belief is that the contractor used by the city to erect posters advertising the business fair took advantage of the election season to steal election posters thus saving considerable expenditure on masonite boards.
“A lot of these posters were erected. A lot of our posters were stolen from all over Durban. Melanie has asked the investigating officer to investigate this line of reasoning. A simple call to the office of Logie Naidoo or the City Manager should reveal who the contractor was. A further visit to the contractors premises will reveal how many posters were stolen. The perpetrator here might be a contractor who, if guilty, should be brought to book in terms of the Electoral Act,” said Brauteseth.
Thabani Ngwira, the provincial communications officer at the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) Westville branch, said he was away from the office on Friday, 22 July, and did not have access to his e-mail but the IEC will investigate the vandalism when he returned to the office on Monday.
However, Highway Mail has still not received a response at the time of going to press.
