It seems as if the authorities (municipal and police) are losing the battle against the flood of abortion posters clandestinely plastered on all available surfaces in Louis Trichardt, Musina and Polokwane, as well as on traffic signs along the N1.

Mothers are urged in these pamphlets to get rid of their unborn babies, cheaply, quickly and painlessly by means of “legalized abortions”. Contact cell phone numbers and a price list are supplied, but no physical address is given. The provincial health authorities, when approached, declined to comment on the ethics or the legality of these advertisements and also failed to give any advice to members of the public on the best way to react to these “invitations” and how to safeguard themselves against money-grabbing professionals and the life-threatening dangers of officially unaccredited back-alley operators.

These mini posters are being plastered in contravention of several municipal by-laws on traffic signs, substations, walls, poles and now also over paid posters, tied to electricity poles along the town’s streets, thus defacing lawful posters and further polluting the environment. When this scourge was brought to the attention of the Makhado Municipality, the official spokesperson, Mr Louis Bobodi, promised that the municipality would follow up and try to locate the culprits to bring them to book. He also said a person would in the meantime be tasked to remove the polluting clandestine posters.

The pollution, however, continued unabated. 

A resident then caught a man red handed, pasting up these posters. The man with a bundle of hundreds of posters and a tube of wood glue was taken to the police station and handed over to the SAPS in Louis Trichardt. He said he was paid by a man in Thohoyandou to paste up the adverts. He needed the money.

Less than a week later, the polluting flood seemed to have increased. It still continues.