Gov’t targets more citizen participation in billboard advertising

Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday November 24, 2025 06:00

He was answering a questions asked by Member of Parliament (MP) for Shashe West constituency, Jeremiah Frenzel.

The legislator had wanted the Minister to appraise Parliament on billboard advertisements in Gaborone and if he was aware that all prime spots for outdoor advertisements have been allocated to foreign companies.

Furthermore, Frenzel wanted to know if Motshegwa was aware that Batswana have been left out and that the Gaborone City Council (GCC) has frozen applications for any new billboard advertisement applications.

Equally, he inquired of when the City Council will start allocating advertisement spots to Batswana-owned entities; and what his Ministry was doing to ensure that the inequalities and lack of fairness and transparency are unravelled to ensure that councils empower ordinary Batswana-owned companies.

“In 2019, Gaborone City Council revised its advertising regulations after determining that the city had become over-saturated with billboard structures, which resulted in visual clutter and negatively affecting the city’s aesthetics,” Motshegwa said told Parliament.

“As a corrective measure, the council resolved that future allocations would only be issued through a transparent procurement process, rather than unsolicited expressions of interest as was previously the case.”

The Minister added that, currently, the GCC is dealing with a high number of illegal and non-compliant advertising boards within its jurisdiction.

“These illegal boards must first be removed or regularised before the Council can float tenders for available sites. This clean-up exercise is ongoing,” he pointed out.

He, however, said City Council will be in a position to float a tender once the clean-up and removal of illegal sites has been completed, thereby making compliant spaces available for allocation.

He also said under the 2019 Advertising Guidelines, only Citizen-Owned entities are eligible to bid for and be allocated new advertising spaces.

Additionally, he said the Ministry will continue to guide and support Local Authorities to ensure full adherence to the national advertising guidelines and to ensure that any newly identified or regularised advertising spaces are allocated strictly to citizens and citizen-owned entities.

He also said the ministry remains committed to ensuring that Local Authorities uphold the principles of fairness, accountability, transparency, and good governance in all outdoor advertising and other business processes.

“This is in line with our broader mandate to promote equitable and inclusive local economic participation to empower ordinary Batswana,” he further revealed.