This is a little like me not being allowed to have posters up in my bedroom, but less serious: the ANC has lodged a complaint with the Electoral Commission after Cape Town city workers were found removing Cosatu posters campaigning for Tony Ehrenreich. Because they want their posters back, apparently.
The rationale here being that parties are only allowed one poster per pole, and that there were already ANC posters on the poles that the Cosatu posters were removed from – which, according to City spokesperson Kylie Hatton, could be regarded as two for the same party.
The ANC threatened the city with legal action, at which point Cape Town agreed to return the posters to the IEC warehouse on Saturday – which is when this happened:
…a man delivering the posters on behalf of the city – who would only give his name as Desmond – showed up at the warehouse with them on Saturday morning, he instead threatened to beat up two photographers from Sowetan and News 24, who were waiting for the delivery.
“If you take photos of me, I will smash your cameras,” he said.
When two more vehicles loaded with hundreds of posters arrived, IEC officials pulled down a steel shutter to allow the drop-off to take place in private.
Deon Simons, from the ANC affiliate, the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu), arrived to take the posters back to Mitchells Plain, where Ehrenreich was waiting to put them up again.
I hope you’re all as scandalized by this as I am.
[Source: Sowetan]
