ActionSA says Joburg removed its Diepkloof billboard without a court order

ActionSA says the City of Johannesburg removed its campaign billboard in Diepkloof, Soweto, without a court order, and that the structure was damaged as it came down.

The billboard carried the party’s Joburg campaign message, party leader Herman Mashaba’s face and the words “Lets Do It Again”. It stood on a privately owned site, with the advertising space secured through a third party media buyer.

As IOL reported on 17 September, the party is weighing an urgent spoliation order, criminal charges and a complaint to the Electoral Commission of South Africa. ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont said the courts have ruled repeatedly that the city cannot remove a billboard without a valid court order, and that it was verified the same day that no such order had been obtained for this one.

What the law says about election material

The Municipal Electoral Act makes it a criminal offence to remove or damage election materials, including billboards. The penalty is a fine or up to 10 years in prison. The same conduct can also breach the Electoral Code of Conduct, which is enforced by the IEC.

That second route matters for a party that wants a fast remedy. A spoliation order is about possession, not ownership. It asks a court to restore a situation that was changed without legal process, and it does not require the applicant to first prove it had the right to be there. An IEC complaint runs on a separate track and can be heard while the election campaign is still under way.

The November 4 local government elections are the first test of Johannesburg’s current political arrangement. ActionSA is contesting the metro against an ANC that has run the city in various coalitions since 2021, and against a mayoral setup that has changed hands more than once in this term.

Beaumont said the removal was led by the ANC’s MMC for Economic Development rather than by municipal officials, and that the ANC ward councillor in the area was the chief protagonist behind the effort. The Enquirer has put those claims to the City of Johannesburg and to the ANC’s Johannesburg region and will report their replies.

The question the city has to answer

Outdoor advertising is regulated by municipal by-laws, and a billboard that does not comply can be the subject of an enforcement notice. The city’s own position on this billboard is not yet on the record. What is on the record is ActionSA’s account that no court order was obtained, and the party’s statement that it was still investigating whether the billboard complied with city regulations while maintaining that this would not justify removal without an order.

For a voter in Diepkloof, the practical effect is narrower than the legal argument. A campaign message that was standing on a main road is gone, and the party that paid for it says it will not simply replace it and move on.

Billboards are not a small item in a metro campaign. They are one of the few ways a party reaches commuters who do not follow politics online, and in a ward level contest they are often the first thing a resident sees about a candidate. Removing one, even briefly, removes reach that cannot be bought back in the final weeks.

ActionSA says its legal teams are working on the response. The party has not yet filed. The IEC has not confirmed receipt of a complaint, and the city has not yet said what it relied on when the structure came down.

Source: IOL, ‘No court order obtained’: ActionSA challenges removal of Soweto billboard, 17 September 2026.