Paddy Harper: Candidates finally show their heads in the battle for ward 33

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Tuesday.

With six days to go before South Africa hits the polls, some of the 37 candidates for eThekwini’s ward 33 appear to be finally waking up to the fact that there’s a municipal election.

Granted, there’s been no knock on the door — or phone call, SMS or WhatsApp — from any of the candidates yet, but at least the parties appear to be postering the ward, which had previously been pretty much free of calls to vote for the poll dancers — and chancers — next Monday.

Thus far, only the Democratic Alliance, the Economic Freedom Fighters, the ANC and ActionSA have shown us either their party logos or — in rare cases — a picture of the candidate’s head. There’s also a smattering of Inkatha Freedom Party posters at the bottom end of the ward, around Dalton Hostel.

ActionSA was first out the blocks with posters calling on people who were tired of politicians and politics to participate in politics and vote for ActionSA, a political party run by politicians.

Not a particularly logical message, but then again logic doesn’t appear to be a thing when it comes to ActionSA and the party’s populist leader, Herman Mashaba.

Unlike ActionSA, the smaller parties don’t appear to have money to pay for posters, or the inclination to put them up. 

This may, in the long term, be a blessing. 

The eThekwini municipality and the parties battling for control of it don’t have the greatest track record when it comes to taking the posters down after voting day, despite city by-laws stipulating large fines per poster per day for failing to do so.

As a result, the election posters usually stay there either until they die a natural death — a lingering, scabrous reminder that one gets what one votes for.

There’s nothing creepier than having half a politician’s sun-bleached head staring down from the light poles six months after election day, as if they’re squinting to see how much money one has left in one’s wallet left for them to steal.