Only 50% of Election Material Removed in Nelson Mandela Bay, Says Electoral Officer

Political parties in Nelson Mandela Bay have taken down about half of all election posters and related material. This emerged during an exclusive interview with Briefly News, during which municipal electoral officer Dumisani Mbebe emphasised that the city was poised to impose heavy fines on non-compliant parties.

GQEBERHA — Electioneering is over, and the focus is now on mapping the country's future.

But parties must not have gotten the memo if campaign posters on street poles, advertising boards, traffic lights, and even municipal bins and transformers are to be judged.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has since warned that parties take down all election material within the municipal boundary or face heavy fines.

Scale of election posters plastered across the city

Officials initially said the groups had until Wednesday this week to act on the urgent request, but this instruction was later revised to Thursday.

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They said failure to comply would result in a fine.

According to municipal by-laws, parties are allowed a period of two weeks after the election date to remove their posters.

In an interview with Briefly News, electoral officer Dumisani Mbebe said the municipality had further revised the deadline for the removals.

"The municipality will commence the removal operations from Friday [14 June] to Sunday, 16 June.

"The city will continue removing the remaining [material] using its resources and bill [the relevant] parties.

"Officials have addressed them to serve their accounts or bills for the non-removal of election-related material."

Mbebe said the response to the announcement was cordial.

However, according to available stats, he said the concerned parties only took down about half of the material by the close of business on Thursday.

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"Fifty per cent of the posters have not been removed thus far.

"We have no option other than to implement the municipal by-laws and fine parties in contravention accordingly.

“We urge the removal of posters and any other election-related material or illustrations throughout the city or face a fine.

“The City will remove any material not removed across all wards."

He said a tariff charge/removal fee of R57.69 would apply per poster.

"It remains the municipality's responsibility to implement by-laws.

"We will always draw lessons from the national and provincial elections and improve our system heading towards the 2026 local government polls."

Ekurhuleni post-election cleanup ‘too slow’

In related election stories, Briefly News reported that party members nationwide had begun removing election posters following the recent general elections.

However, despite these efforts, the City of Ekurhuleni insisted this action alone was insufficient as the deadline loomed for complete removal.

Source: Briefly News