Businesses call on City to act against illegal advertisers
21 June 2017
Businesspeople have raised their displeasure at the continued presence of illegal advertising billboards, posters and signs in Johannesburg and have called on the City to act decisively against the offenders.
The business owners expressed their anger and frustrations at a public consultative meeting held at the Jabula Recreation Centre in Sandringham, Region E, on Tuesday June 20. The meeting was one in a series of public engagement sessions hosted by the City to give all stakeholders the opportunity to comment on the recently approved draft by-laws on illegal outdoor advertising.
More than 78% of outdoor advertising in Johannesburg is believed to be illegal. This does not only cost the City millions of rands in lost revenue every year, it also creates a safety hazard for the public and affects municipal infrastructure. Media companies and estate agents are among the City’s biggest transgressors. A new trend of private landlords erecting signs on the City’s road reserves has also been identified.
One of the businesspeople who expressed discontent at illegal outdoor advertising during the Sandringham meeting on Tuesday night was Anthony Roswarin, owner of Huilemark Properties. “There’s absolutely no enforcement [of by-laws] whatsoever on outdoor advertising in this area. People pretty much do what they like. They nail signs on trees. They put boards wherever they want and they plaster walls with advertising,” an angry Roswarin said.
“There must be an improvement in these by-laws for the City to have increased enforcement and make sure there are severe penalties for those who contravene them.”
However, Harold Pailman, Director of Reliance Auctions, blamed the City for “punishing everyone in the industry” without analysing each case on its merits. Pailman, whose company employs 86 people, said it was unfortunate that the City was not “having full control of its own by-laws”.
“We’re dealing with many municipalities in Gauteng and the City of Johannesburg is the only municipality that has outsourced the application process and I think that’s one of the biggest problems,” he said.
Pailman said if the city was handling the applications process itself, it would know what to approve and what not to.
“There are just too many parties involved in the City of Johannesburg when it comes to outdoor advertising. That’s why there are so many illegal posters going up.”
He said people thought the process was too complicated to follow. He said he understood that outdoor advertising often caused clutter. “Not everyone is breaking the law. You’re painting the whole industry with the same brush and I think it’s unfair,” Pailman added.
Jack Sekgobela, Manager of Outdoor Advertising in the City of Johannesburg’s Planning Department, said it was important that everyone in the industry was being given the opportunity to participate in the consultative process to help amend the by-laws. “What used to be wrong must be fixed. This is your opportunity to help us rectify it.”
Stephanie Bernstein of Stephanie Bernstein Industrial Properties raised concerns about what she called an “uneven enforcement of the by-laws”, saying this affected small businesses.
“The City has to draw a distinction between a small business and big business. It’s unfair when big businesses easily pay fines and continue breaking the law. They continue to do as they like and, in the process, they put us out of business,” Bernstein said.
In terms of the City’s newly amended Outdoor Advertising By-Laws, transgressors may face possible arrest. Property rates of private owners who erect illegal signs on their properties face an increase in their rates.