Walls, trees, lampposts and traffic signs in Louis Trichardt are being defaced and polluted by a flood of unauthorised advertising material. The situation is exacerbated by a serious lack of law enforcement.

Officially, advertising posters are allowed only on lampposts, at a prescribed fee and for a predetermined period. Under no circumstances are these posters allowed on traffic signs. It is a punishable offense to do so.

Together with the negative environmental impact, this unbridled abuse of public structures and surfaces is also causing physical damage and a loss of revenue for the Makhado Municipality.

The lack of law enforcement contributes to a dangerous culture of general lawless behaviour.

A virtual publicity war is raging along the town’s streets, turning lampposts into ugly trash poles, defacing authorised posters and traffic signs and polluting parks and public spaces.

A walk along the main business streets in the town centre makes it obvious that there is little if any enforcement of the municipal bylaws controlling the authorised affixing and prescribed removal of advertising material on the town’s lampposts.

In the town centre, the traffic signs (and even the palm trees in the civic park) seem to be the exclusive free poster stands for life-threatening back-alley abortion operators who have a field day in luring victims for their dubious practices.

The business environment is also being polluted and made unpleasant by allowing authorised posters to remain in tatters long after the prescribed expiry period.