Political parties will be charged a fee of R200 per poster removed by the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) if they miss the extended deadline to take down election posters in the city by the end of the month.

City of Joburg spokesperson Virgil James said that because of the tendency of parties to miss the official 14-day deadline after the elections, the city had decided to give parties up to two more weeks before the JMPD steps in.

According to James, the council has to inform parties of the deadline to remove election posters, which fall under Section 28 (1) of the 2009 Outdoor Advertising By-Law, within 10 days after the conclusion of the election or voter registration.

The guidelines of the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) stipulate that posters have to be removed within 14 days after an election, but each municipality could determine a final deadline and apply removal fees for non-compliance.

The City of Tshwane had not answered a question about their poster removal deadline at the time of publishing. According to the city rules, the JMPD will charge R200 for each poster not removed by the relevant political party.

“What we normally do is, because things never work out properly and we still find posters up if we stick to the tight deadlines, we give a few days grace.

“So we are looking at extending the deadline for another six to eight days – probably the end of the month.

“But at the same time, we want the city to look clean and neat, so we will take the necessary steps after the leeway has been granted to parties.”

The City of Cape Town has far stricter rules. It had already started removing posters on Monday. The city’s fines were slightly more lenient at R117 per poster tied to a pole and R170 per pasted poster.

– simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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