Cape Town gets tough on graffiti

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Cape Town gets tough on graffiti

One of the country's top graffiti artists, Falko, has slammed the city's Graffiti Control Unit for targeting "hip hop" mural art rather than gang graffiti.

The city's mayoral committee (Mayco) member for safety and security, JP Smith, however, has argued that the cleaners were targeting both large murals and gang tags, and that graffiti artists had been given enough time to comply with the new by-law.

The graffiti by-law, which was passed on July 9 last year, states that graffiti artists need the permission of the property owner and the people living in the vicinity, before starting a project. Yesterday Falko, who has been meeting Smith about possible amendments to simplify the permit application process, said many murals in Woodstock had been removed.

"But it's only the graffiti art, many of the gang tags are still around," he said.

He also referred to another artist's mural along the N2 near Black River Parkway which had been whitewashed while gang tags on an adjacent wall had been left untouched.

The gang tags mark gang territory.

"My complaint is that they (the cleaners) have got to treat everyone fairly," he said.

Smith said that unless there was something "seriously wrong" with the murals such as that they reflected hate speech, they would be wary of simply removing the art.

"We're mostly hitting tagging and mindless scrawling on public property," he said.

However, Smith, who insisted that the by-law promoted mural art, said the graffiti artists needed to make an effort to comply.

To this end, Falko said he had asked Smith for three elements of the by-law to be amended, because getting hold of people for their permission was proving challenging.

"It's sometimes just as hard to get hold of the neighbours as it is the homeowners," he said.

Also, the time for awaiting a response from the city was too long.

But Smith warned that artists who did not have a permit to paint and still went ahead would be fined.

He said the city had been extremely accommodating and that artists who had completed bigger murals had been given time to apply to keep them.

"We issued them with a warning a year and a half ago that clean-up day was coming and they have had ample timeÂ… we cannot be more reasonable," he said.

Smith insisted that the bylaw promoted mural art.
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I think they should get 2080 lashes for messing up property.
This falco oke needs a few snotklappe.
 
The loss of those murals is quite sad. They add colour and life to otherwise drab areas and buildings.
 
alf101 said:
I think they should get 2080 lashes for messing up property.
This falco oke needs a few snotklappe.
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Especially since it's the owner of the property (if it's on private property) that will be fined for the graffiti, not the little sod the did the deed.
 
noxibox said:
The loss of those murals is quite sad. They add colour and life to otherwise drab areas and buildings.
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The ones where the "artists" had permission to paint will stay.

If some fcker painted some crap on your walls, you'd probably like to have it removed.
 
tesafrika2.jpg


graffiti_wall.jpg


This stuff will look pretty on somebodies house - especially if he didn't want it.

http://www.hiphop.co.za/media/galleries/ctgrafgallery1/capetown1.html
 
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