26 Nov 2015

The outdoor advertising bye-laws are with the Attorney General’s Chambers for final vetting, the Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Ms Botlogile Tshireletso, has said.

Responding to a question from Gaborone North MP, Ms Tshireletso said her ministry had been informed that the bye-laws were undergoing different levels of vetting and they were expecting feedback by end of November after which the approval process would follow.

She said her ministry was in discussion with Gaborone City Council with a view of engaging outdoor advertising companies on issues of citizen participation in the industry.

The assistant minister said there were none-advertising companies operating in Gaborone, out of which six wereowned by Batswana and three were foreign owned.

She said there were 308 approved advertising sites within the city boundaries of which 31 are for Batswana owned companies, 267 are owned by foreign companies.

The remaining 10 are owned by companies which do their own advertising.

Ms Tshireletso said the GCC collected P7.2 million, P7.8 million and P7.4 million in revenue for 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14 financial years respectively.

She said the council has not lost any revenue as a result of the moratorium imposed on advertising as the primary purpose of this action was first to de-congest the advertisement sites to a minimum of 350 metres and standardize the size of the boards.

Mr Haskins Nkaigwa had asked the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development how far the bye-laws relating to outdoor advertisement were since they had long been presented to the Ministry for approval by Gaborone City Council (GCC). 

He wanted to know what delayed the bye-laws and if there were any plans to reserve outdoor advertisement business for Batswana.

MP Nkaigwa also asked the minister to state the number of Batswana and foreign companies involved in the outdoor advertisement business in Gaborone respectively.

He also asked the minister to state the level of business received by Batswana owned companies compared to foreign owned companies.

The Gaborone North legislator asked how much revenue was GCC making out of outdoor advertisement before the suspension of the bye-laws and how much income was lost due to the suspension of the bye-laws. Ends