Online Reporter
Blessings Chidakwa
Herald Reporter
CASH-STRAPPED Harare City Council has failed to collect a single cent from billboards across the city for more than 20 years despite watching its skyline fill with them, some sleek and modern, others rusted and fading.
Despite the proliferation of outdoor advertising structures across the capital, council has not earned any revenue from billboards, mainly due to corruption and mismanagement.
The city could have earned millions annually from billboard licencing and advertising fees, standard sources of income for municipalities worldwide.
Harare (Control of Advertising Signs) By-Laws prohibit the erection of signage, billboards, or wall murals without council approval.
Speaking during a recent 1 935th ordinary council meeting, Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume confirmed that council was getting nothing from billboards and proposed an external audit.
“The council has not realised revenue from billboards for more than 20 years,” he said.
“There are people benefiting from the chaos. Council is bleeding. There are so many billboards in the city and they are not paying their dues.”
However, there was uproar as some councillors, including Happymore Gotora and Denford Ngadziore, argued that council should first exhaust internal procedures before commissioning an external audit.
Mayor Mafume remained firm, insisting an external audit was necessary.
“The answer to how much is coming from billboards will never come. It hasn’t for the past 10 years, because those stealing the money don’t want council to know,” he said.
“We want an external audit to expose how much is being stolen. We can’t rely on the same people causing the leakages to give us that information.”
A council employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, said this was just a tip of the iceberg.
“We’re watching public assets being exploited for private gain,” the employee said.
