{"id":227660,"date":"2022-06-01T14:26:20","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T12:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/cape-towns-famous-long-street-sign-is-illegal-says-court\/"},"modified":"2022-06-01T14:26:20","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T12:26:20","slug":"cape-towns-famous-long-street-signage-is-illegal-says-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/cape-towns-famous-long-street-signage-is-illegal-says-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Town\u2019s famous Long Street signage is illegal, says court"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article_body\">\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Liezl%20Human\/maskbanner-liezlhuman-20220601unnamed.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/cape-towns-famous-long-street-signage-is-illegal-says-court.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Currently, the sign on the wall of the Overbeek building at the top of Long Street reads: \u201cMask up in public\u201d. Photo: Liezl Human<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The huge signs on the block of flats at the top of Long Street in Cape Town contravene a by-law and must come down, a court has ruled.<\/li>\n<li>The owners of the building went to court to have the signage removed.<\/li>\n<li>They told GroundUp that at first the signs brought in advertising money but signs since 2016, includng the famous \u201cZuma must fall\u201d sign which was ripped off by Zuma supporters, had not brought in revenue.<\/li>\n<li>The signage company is appealing against the judgment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The enormous banner on the wall of a block of flats at the top of Long Street is a familiar sight in Cape Town. But a court has ruled that the signage &#8211; the South African flag, the words \u201cZuma must fall\u201d, and more recently, the Covid instructions \u201cStay home\u201d and \u201cMask up\u201d &#8211; is illegal. The owner of the signs, Independent Outdoor Media (IOM), is appealing against the ruling.<\/p>\n<p>Since 2016 the City of Cape Town has been trying to get IOM to remove the banners, which cover a full side of the Overbeek apartment building, above McDonald\u2019s. The City says the signage contravenes the <a href=\"https:\/\/openbylaws.org.za\/za-cpt\/act\/by-law\/2001\/outdoor-advertising-signage\/eng\/\">Outdoor Advertising and Signage By-law<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The managing director of IOM, Brent Dyssell, first started leasing space for advertising in 1999 from the trustees representing the owners of the Overbeek building. The use of the wall for advertising was approved by the City, but this approval expired a few years after.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"leave\" height=\"1\" id=\"gu_counter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/cape-towns-famous-long-street-signage-is-illegal-says-court.gif\" width=\"1\"><\/p>\n<p>In 2022 the Overbeek trustees took IOM to court.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/Unknown%20photographer\/zumabanner-supplied-_20220601.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/cape-towns-famous-long-street-signage-is-illegal-says-court-1.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">The sign reading \u201cZuma must fall\u201d was put up in 2016 by Independent Outdoor Media soon after thousands of people marched in Cape Town calling for Zuma to step down. Photo supplied<\/p>\n<p>The lease agreement with IOM had been mutually beneficial up until 2016, said Ian Gilfillan, the chairperson of the trustees. Then, in 2016 IOM put up the \u201cZuma Must Fall\u201d banner. This prompted ANC supporters to <a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2016\/01\/23\/Owners-of-Zuma-Must-Fall-billboard-building-could-face-prosecution\">enter the building and apartments <\/a>and tear the banner down.<\/p>\n<p>Facing possible legal action from IOM if they ended the lease, and from the City, which had ordered IOM to have the sign removed, the trustees decided to take the matter to court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOverbeek has recently received no revenue, and has had no say in the composition of any subsequent banners. These have mostly been non-commercial, but some have been commercial, and Overbeek has not received any revenue for these,\u201d said Ian Gilfillan, the chairperson of the Overbeek trustees.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/Unknown%20photographer\/flagbanner-lsupplied-20220601unnamed.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/cape-towns-famous-long-street-signage-is-illegal-says-court-2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">After the \u201cZuma must fall\u201d sign was taken down, the South African flag was put up. This stayed for nearly three years. Photo supplied<\/p>\n<p>In January 2022, the Western Cape High Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saflii.org.za\/za\/cases\/ZAWCHC\/2022\/2.html#_ftn2\">ruled<\/a> in favour of the trustees, deciding that the banner was in contravention of the by-law and must be removed.<\/p>\n<p>Dyssell argued that the by-law is void because the City first needed to obtain permission from the Department of Trade in terms of the National Building Regulations and the Building Standards Act.<\/p>\n<p>The court found that this permission was not required and that the sign was illegal. Dyssell is appealing against the judgment.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"subheading\"><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/Unknown%20photographer\/rugbybanner-supplied-20220601_K4lqxzv.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/cape-towns-famous-long-street-signage-is-illegal-says-court-3.jpg\"><\/a><\/h2>\n<p class=\"caption\">The sign depicting the SA rugby team\u2019s logo was put up during the Rugby World Cup in 2019. Photo: Supplied<\/p>\n<p>The City\u2019s Deputy Mayor and Mayco member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Eddie Andrews, said in response to GroundUp questions that the Overbeek sign had been displayed with \u201cflagrant disregard\u201d of the City\u2019s by-law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEach suburb has unique visual, historical and cultural value and appeal and we must protect and promote our city\u2019s sense of place, heritage, scenic routes and tourist destinations,\u201d said Andrews.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOutdoor signage can benefit our local economy, but it must be located at appropriate locations, and this is why the by-law guides the City when we assess applications,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>After the \u201cZuma must fall\u201d sign was removed, IOM replaced it with a South African flag, which stayed up for nearly three years. The sign reading \u201cStay home\u201d was put up just after President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s announcement that the country would go into hard lockdown in the Covid pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe impact of this particular sign is far greater than I\u2019d ever imagined,\u201d Dyssell said to GroundUp. He said the image of the \u201cStay home\u201d sign had been used all over the news.<\/p>\n<p>But, he said, soon after this sign went up, the City contacted him and said he had to remove it.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Ashraf%20Hendricks\/stayhomebanner-ashrafhendricks-20220601unnamed.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/cape-towns-famous-long-street-signage-is-illegal-says-court-4.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">At the beginning of the Covid lockdown in 2020, the sign \u201cStay home, if you can\u201d was put up. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks<\/p>\n<p>Dyssell said that he submitted applications for the permit several times, but these were all rejected without providing good reasons. He said he couldn\u2019t understand why the City didn\u2019t permit the sign again.<\/p>\n<p>He said the City had \u201cengineered\u201d reasons why the sign could not be approved, such as that it covered windows on the building, which is not the case. He said the \u201cStay home\u201d sign was not advertising and fell into the category of community notices under the by-law, and that he was exercising a right to freedom of speech.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, the sign reads \u201cMask up\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"article_copyright\">\n<p>\u00a9 2022 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.<\/p>\n<p>We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, <b>not tracking<\/b> users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/cape-towns-famous-long-street-signage-is-illegal-says-court.jpg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/\">Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Currently, the sign on the wall of the Overbeek building at the top of Long Street reads: \u201cMask up in public\u201d. Photo: Liezl Human The huge signs on the block of flats at the top of Long Street in Cape Town contravene a by-law and must come down, a court has ruled. The owners of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":227661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-227660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/cape-towns-famous-long-street-signage-is-illegal-says-court.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}