Councillor removes old election posters

Politcal parties in and around Johannesburg got the flack because they forgot to take off their election posters after the elections.

Ward 126 councillor Mike Tonkin said after a drive through his ward, he noticed that a couple of election posters were still visible on lamp poles about two months after the elections.

“I noticed the posters on Rugby Avenue and, after myself and our Community Liaison Officer Jan von der Hyde started removing the posters, we noticed that there were posters on the lamp poles in Cornelius Street as well.”

Von der Hyde said Tonkin came up with an ingenious tool to remove the posters that were too high to reach.

“He took two long polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes and attached a small kitchen knife at the end to cut the tie downs that were holding the posters to the poles,” said Von der Hyde.

Tonkin said he agreed that the posters had to be removed seven days after the elections, but added that he did not put up the posters in the first place and was unaware that these posters were still up.

“We are aware that the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) could easily have given us a R1 000 penalty for each poster, but we made sure that every poster in the suburb was removed.”

The IEC spokesperson Kate Bapela was contacted for comment, but was unable to respond at the time of publication as she was out of the office for official business. Bapela did, however, agree to comment as soon as she is able to.

Details: Ward 126 councillor Mike Tonkin 082 564 0160.