TZANEEN: The right way to go about advertising political parties
However, no posters can be put up on concrete structures, stop signs, robots or anywhere that would cause the blocking of road traffic signs.
The town was painted red in light of the upcoming elections.
The EFF recently put up posters of their party all over Tzaneen in areas that left the town looking completely red.
After having gotten word about how the political party had gone about placing their campaign boards, the LETABA HERALD took to the streets to get a glimpse of how the town looks.
The HERALD spoke to the IEC spokesperson, Nkaro Mateta, regarding the rules around posting up the campaign boards.
“Political parties can advertise anywhere based on the municipalities in the area. They have to be assigned spaces where they do not obstruct any important signs and an example of such would be to not put up their posters where there are important road signs,” said Mateta.
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Contact was also made to the spokesperson of the Greater Tzaneen Municipality, Neville Ndlala, to try and find out what the regulations are from the municipality.
“Given that it is election time, we have relaxed by-laws as instructed by SALGA. However, no posters can be put up on concrete structures, stop signs, robots or anywhere that would cause the blocking of road traffic signs,” said Ndlala.
Furthermore, he stated that the consequences of not adhering to the limited set laws on advertising are that the political parties would have to pay a fine or have their posters removed.
“With the posters that are on the concrete structures in town, we have sent out people to remove them because they are not allowed to be there. The party was not fined because it was brought to our attention that they did not know, or rather that they were not informed about this type of area restriction,” exclaimed Ndlala.
He told the HERALD that the municipality was in the process of meeting with electoral officers in order to discuss steps and measures to be taken with regards to informing political party representatives on the right way to advertise their parties.
The decision is said to have come as a result of political party representatives not knowing in full length where they can and can not put up their posters.
The public stated that political parties should not make campaigning a matter of war.
“At the moment it looks very wrong as some of these posters have been placed on top of already existing posters from other parties. It would make sense if there were more billboards to advertise on, instead of having the town look the way it does right now because of the removal of these posters. But the issue with that then would be that other political parties would buy all the billboards’ advertising space. So it is really a tricky one, but the safest way to go about it would be to stick to using lampposts and trees rather than what we are seeing now,” said a man who asked to remain anonymous because he does not want his views linked to his place of work.
Mopani EFF spokesperson, Stephen Kubayi stated that advertising political parties should come with the understanding that there is a political sphere to adhere to.
“There is a lot of space to advertise all the parties, but what most of us don’t understand is that we should work together and not against each other. We are not fighting, that’s not what we stand for. We all have the right to put up our posters, but unfortunately, I was unaware that there are some of the parties posters that were put up in restricted areas,” exclaimed Kubayi.
Printing costs from different companies range from R125 per poster to a total of R7348.50 to print a quantity of 1000 posters.
The HERALD counted 120 posters that have already been taken off from the concrete structures in town and they add up to a cost of R15 000 that the political party has lost.
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Another concern expressed by the public is that these posters are overpowering and have a sense of forcefulness regarding the way they have been placed.
Some areas have both the EFF and the ANC party posters still posted on the concrete dustbins, however Ndlala stated that they would be removed during the course of time.
Efforts to contact the ANC Provincial spokesperson and Media Liaison Officer were made but unfortunately neither one could be reached for comment at the time of going to print.
