Who is lying in banner battle?

The looming court case between Solidarity, the City of Joburg and Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi – over the alleged illegal removal of the organisation’s banner on the M1 freeway – is going to be entertaining.

That’s because: Someone is lying.

Either Solidarity’s advertising company had permission from the city to erect the banner or it never did, according to the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD).

If the banner was illegal, then it won’t be the first time someone has tried a piece of “ambush advertising” hoping the city wouldn’t react.

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If it was legal, then someone inside the outdoor advertising section of the municipality doesn’t know their job, because the JMPD says ads have never been permitted on that section of highway.

But Solidarity has won the publicity fight – no doubt about that.

Many of their supporters and defenders are crying about censorship and the message has, undoubtedly, been relayed to the White House as confirmation that still more “terrible things are happening” in South Africa.

Ironically, it is the ANC-led municipality and provincial government’s failure to crack down on outdoor advertising that has turned around to bite it in the rear.

Did Solidarity take that gap? The court proceedings should give us an answer.