The Makhado Municipality is losing potential revenue for the authorities through its failure to act against pirate postering in Louis Trichardt. The interests of the established business fraternity are also seriously jeopardized by the lack of a clearly stated policy and consistent law enforcement on this matter. Public property is being damaged, expensive advertising structures abused and the general environment polluted by the uninhibited random plastering of advertising material on literally any available surface in town. Authorised, paid posters, which were cleared by the municipality and affixed to lamp posts for the period paid for, as well as expensive professional advertising boards are simply obliterated by pirate posters which cover the original message. Traffic signs become obscured, identification numbers of electrical installations and sub-stations are blotted out and property is damaged by the indiscriminate and uncontrolled pasting up of pirate posters. Posters advertising anything from abortions to Gospel Conferences are unlawfully affixed to traffic signs or pasted onto authorized posters, thus damaging advertisements which were paid for and erected in an orderly, lawful manner. “If just one of these bastards is brought to book and slammed with a stiff fine, it may return some sanity to the situation”, commented one irrate businessman this week. The type of stickers and posters now appearing on the town’s defunct parking meters and traffic signs, in the wake of the previously uncontrolled flood of illicit abortion posters, seem to indicate that perfectly decent organizations are now convinced that it is a free-for-all situation in which no rules apply. This week saw well-designed posters and stickers advertising sound equipment, beauty treatment, recreational events, the services of an estate agent, various educational institutions and a prayer conference being pasted up or neatly tied (unlawfully) to traffic signs.