Solidarity takes COJ to court after removal of 'race-regulated country' banner
Solidarity says it will urgently approach the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday after the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) removed one of its banners without notice or explanation.
The organisation has served court papers to Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi and the City of Johannesburg, after the banner, which read “Welcome to the most race-regulated country in the world”, was taken down on November 10.
The banner formed part of Solidarity’s November awareness campaign on race laws ahead of the G20 Summit.
Solidarity says it followed all legal procedures by working through a recognised advertising agency and paying all fees in advance.
However, the banner was removed by city authorities without any prior communication.
The union says Lesufi and some city officials encouraged, confirmed, and then publicly praised the removal on social media, referring to the banner’s “political message.”
In its urgent application, Solidarity argues that the removal was unlawful and politically motivated. It says the City’s by-laws do not authorise officials to take down advertisements unilaterally and that no notice or request for an explanation was issued.
The union says this contravenes basic principles of administrative justice and ignores a court ruling from August 2025 in which the City was found to have acted unlawfully in a similar case.
Earlier this week, IOL reported that the JMPD cited non-compliance with municipal advertising regulations as the reason for removing the banners.
JMPD spokesperson Xolani Fihla said the city has strict bylaws regulating outdoor advertising, and anyone wishing to erect signage must first apply through the Department of Development Planning’s Outdoor Advertising unit.
“With the information that we do have at the present moment, there is that the signage was not applied for through the City of Johannesburg, and also the City of Johannesburg has the prerogative to decide what kind of messages that should be put up on whatever public space that is with the City of Johannesburg, and that’s the reason why the signage was removed,” Fihla explained.
He clarified that while Solidarity may claim to have paid for advertising space, the JMPD has no record of such an application.
“On our side, we don’t have that information from them, and if they do have any type of paperwork that says the contrary, then they let us bring it forward and we’ll take it further,” he said.
Fihla added that enforcement action by the JMPD occurs only if proper approvals are not in place. Consequences can include fines, as well as the impounding of materials and tools used to put up the signs.
Solidarity’s Chief Executive, Dr Dirk Hermann, said the banner was intended to “hold up a mirror to the world of South Africa’s racial policy.”
“The government is now denying its own policy and removing references to it. The banner has now also become a mirror of a government that takes the law into its own hands and that undermines freedom of speech. While Lesufi should be a statesman for G20 countries, he is now an activist who removes banners,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lesufi criticised the campaign on social media, accusing the creators of the banners of seeking to undermine transformation efforts toward an inclusive society.
“Racists are loud and clear! They hate transformation and are busy vulgarising our efforts to build an all-inclusive country that recognises the injustices of apartheid. We must defeat them. To do that we must bury our petty differences and unite the like minds and push them back,” he wrote on X.
Solidarity is asking the court to declare the removal unlawful and to order that the banner be restored at the same site, or returned to the organisation free of charge.
It says it will continue erecting similar billboards across Gauteng in the meantime.
hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za
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