NEWS RELEASE                                                                                                    29 April 2002

NEWLANDS RESIDENTS SEEK FREEDOM FROM GRAFFITI ON FREEDOM DAY

While Freedom Day is celebrated across the country on Saturday, the residents of Newlands will be on the march for their own brand of freedom - freedom from graffiti.

Led by Councillor Ian Iversen, volunteers in the Newlands community will paint over graffiti from the subway which leads to Newlands Rugby Stadium in a bid to eradicate the growing menace of graffiti in their suburb.

The group will meet at 12h30 in Dean Street and they will then fan out and attempt to obliterate as much graffiti as possible by 14h00 when they will disband.

Councillor Iversen, Ward Councillor for ward 60, says graffiti is a growing problem in all areas, including Newlands. “A report to the City of Cape Town recently described graffiti as a form of vandalism and recommended harsh punishment for offenders,” he said. “Nobody has the right to deface property that does not belong to them.”

Public attitudes towards graffiti tend to vary between indifference and intolerance - depending on whether the graffiti is on your own wall or someone else’s.

But the City of Cape Town has declared war on the elusive graffiti “artists”, who work mainly at night and regard their work as a creative art form. The report to the Council describes graffiti as the visual language of the hip-hop underground culture and says it sends out a message that the area is ruled by vandals and gangsters and that the Council has lost control.

“It also frightens away investors,” said Councillor Iversen. “This is not the image we want for Cape Town or Newlands, so we have decided to do something positive to get the message across that we regard graffiti as unacceptable unless it is done on a designated wall in a suitable area.

“We thought Freedom Day would be a good day to free ourselves from graffiti.”

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