4 days ago
Court rules against JMPD's unlawful impounding of advertising materials
Advertising billboards on the M1 north in Johannesburg. The Johannesburg Metro Police Department has been interdicted from impounding advertising material due to the municipality's failure to process applications seeking permission to advertise.
Image: Boxer Ngwenya / Independent Newspapers
The Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) has been stopped from impounding advertising material affixed across the city over by-law violations due to its weak and non-existent systems, allowing a free-for-all.
The Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, on Friday declared the JMPD's actions in impounding equipment used to affix advertising material for advertising time and delivering such equipment to the municipal pound were unlawful.
Additionally, the high court interdicted the metro police and the municipality from using their impoundment powers as enforcement for compliance with the Outdoor Advertising By-laws 2009 on two companies – Van Till Outdoor and Double Option Trading.
The two firms hauled the municipality and the JMPD to court following a February 2023 incident in Sandton, where JMPD officers impounded a vehicle, stepladders, and an advertising banner due to be flighted on a Double Option Trading billboard on Sandton Drive.
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According to the companies, an officer instructed the driver to follow their vehicle to the city impound yard and was later issued a document labelled an impound notice, recording that the reason for impounding was violating the outdoor advertising, advertising signs, and hoarding by-laws. A release fee for the impounded property was set at R3,501.
The advertising by-laws state that no person may erect a sign or use a sign unless it has been approved in writing by the city.
However, the companies complained that the municipality either simply refused to accept their applications or did not deal with them.
The court heard that the state of affairs resulted in a virtually free-for-all where outdoor advertising companies would erect and/or flight outdoor advertising signs randomly and without any approval.
When it came to the enforcement of the by-laws, the JMPD would only randomly and selectively enforce them against arbitrarily selected companies, such as Van Till Outdoor and Double Option Trading.
Both companies admitted that they were part of the free-for-all, out of necessity, and have erected and flighted signs on private and public property without the city's required approvals, which has also compromised their revenue stream from the signs.
In granting the interdict, Acting Judge Snyman made it pertinently clear that nothing in the judgment can be considered and construed by the companies or any other business in the outdoor advertising industry to be any kind of condonation, endorsement or approval for such a party to erect and/or flight a sign unlawfully, and in particular, without the approval of the city as required by the advertising by-laws.
'I reiterate, at all times, these by-laws, as they read, must be complied with. And added to that, the city is not only entitled to, but in fact obliged to, enforce these by-laws against all that transgress,' the acting judge stated.
In addition, the judgment noted that it is simply not open to Van Till Outdoor and Double Option Trading to say that, because the city may have ulterior motives in not dealing with approval applications or is simply not dealing with such applications because of its own operational challenges, they can proceed to simply erect and/or flight signs.
Acting Judge Snyman said this appeared to be the companies suggestion in their founding affidavit.
'It is an unacceptable suggestion, and nothing else but a form of impermissible self-help, which must be discouraged in strong terms.
If the applicants (Van Till Outdoor and Double Option Trading) believe their rights are being infringed in this regard, this would constitute unreasonable administrative action that would be actionable under Section 6(2)(g) as read with Section 6(3) of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act,' reads the judgment.
The city told the court that the companies can lay a formal complaint with its officials, but the acting judge indicated that little need be said about this suggestion.
