GCC denies targeting BCP in billboard onslaught
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Tuesday June 10, 2014 16:56
Matlho said the council has to approve any poster before it is put up or else it is viewed as illegal. He stated that they have written to Mogoditshane MP Patrick Masimolole of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) to remove his posters from the streets of Gaborone.
“We will be writing to Botsalo Ntuane and Robert Masitara (all from BDP) to remove their campaign posters after we saw them over the weekend. We are not targeting one party,” Matlho said, after it emerged that GCC and BCP are headed for another clash over billboard advertising. About a month ago, Justice Modiri Letsididi of the Lobatse High Court dismissed with costs an urgent application launched by GCC to compel the BCP to remove ‘illegal’ advertisement on street poles.
The two parties appear set for another round of feuding after principal council attorney Sono Seisa, instructed BCP chairperson, Motsei Rapelana to pull down her campaign posters in the city.
The Gaborone North parliamentary candidate has been given until tomorrow to act or the council will get a court order to pull down the posters. The GCC attorney accuses Rapelana of flagrantly breaching the Road Traffic Act and council guidelines for erection and maintenance of advertising signs.
He says the politician put up her posters on traffic signal poles without consent or permission of the council.
Seisa warns that the guidelines allow the council to blacklist companies and individuals who persistently put up advertisement signs and hoardings without approval. He says this is not the first violation of the guidelines by BCP, hence the party has 14 days from receipt of the letter to show cause why it should not be blacklisted and banned from advertising in the city.
Meanwhile, BCP election manager, Thapelo Ndlovu has said the matter is in court and unless there is a ruling otherwise, they have the right to put up posters in the city. “We cannot comment on the issue that is before court. What we can say is that we are continuing with our campaigns and nothing will stop us,” he said.
Ndlovu was referring to the case in which Letsididi dismissed with costs an urgent application launched by GCC to compel the BCP to remove ‘illegal’ advertisement on the street poles along Kgalemang T Motsete and traffic intersections. Letsididi is yet to deliver his reasons.