The first campaign posters have gone up on street poles throughout Durban ahead of next year’s general elections.
|||Durban - The first campaign posters have gone up on street poles throughout Durban ahead of next year’s general elections as parties compete to win the hearts and minds of voters.
The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal is the only political party to have so far submitted an application to the eThekwini Municipality to put up the posters.
But opposition parties are expected to follow suit in coming weeks.
Some of the ANC’s posters - which request that the public have their ID cards so they can register to vote - shows a multiracial group against a yellow background and the party’s logo at the corner.
An official at eThekwini Municipality, Musa Mbhele, said the ANC’s application was approved and granted under stringent conditions.
He said a sample of a poster had to be submitted for approval before printing. The content of the poster had to be suitable for the public. Only 15 words including the logo were allowed, he said.
Mbhele said the poster had to be A2 in size and only one could be placed on a pole, in such a way that it did not obscure motorists’ views.
Stickers were issued by the municipality indicating its approval.
Mbhele said inspectors would monitor the advertising signs and enforce the necessary bylaws.
Political parties will have to fork out a fee of R26 000 to display their posters, which will be removed once the election registration period closes.
MF councillor Patrick Pillay said the party’s posters would be going up as soon as they paid the fee.
The DA’s eThekwini chief whip, Dean Macpherson, said their election campaign would only begin in November.
Instead of election posters, the DA preferred face-to-face engagement with people to win votes, he said.
Daily News
* If you use Gmail to read IOL's newsletters, note that Google is rolling out a new tabbed inbox that filters your mail into 5 separate tabs - Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates and Forums. IOL emails will probably be sent to the “Promotions” tab instead of the “Primary” tab. If you don't want it that way, drag the newsletter from the Promotions tab to the Primary tab. An alert will pop up. Click “yes” and your newsletters will continue to go to your Primary inbox.
