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Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu
Is it lawful or unlawful to drive or park a motor vehicle bearing an advertisement for its sale in the Bulawayo municipal area?

This is a question among residents of the City of Kings following a recent news story that the town’s municipal by–laws enforcement personnel had begun towing away cars carrying “For Sale” advertisements.

Owners of such vehicles would be required to pay a fine of $20 to retrieve them. The municipal authorities were said to demand that anyone who wishes to sell a motor-vehicle should utilise the services of registered car selling centres.

People who were asked to comment on that new development invariably described it as absurd and unfair.

The considered opinion of the author of this article is that the by–law is strange, to say the least. It seems to be against a very common practice virtually throughout the whole democratic world where owners of mobile and any other property, including their bodies, can use them for various publicity purposes.

An advertisement is a verbal, or an electronic or written notice or message for the sale or purchase of a good or service. The notice or message should cost the advertiser the least amount of resources such as money, time and material on which it is printed or exhibited, and should be accessible to the targeted market segment at an intended time or in a preferred period.

The most important things to consider when advertising are costs and the target market. Advertising costs should be kept as low as possible so that the price of what is being advertised is also as low as possible to make it affordable to the intended market, and also to enable the advertiser (seller) to make a profit, or the intended buyer not to have a high advertising budget.

Markets are people with money and authority as well as a wish or interest to spend it.

The choice of an advertising medium has a great bearing on the cost of an advertisement. An advertisement carried by a medium that has colour, vision, motion and sound will inevitably cost more than one that offers probably only vision and colour, or that which presents advertisements through sound, that is to say through the aural sense only.

So, with those briefly stated considerations, a person who wishes to sell his or her motor vehicle would certainly be wise to use the very same vehicle to carry a written advert about its sale.

Since the motor vehicle belongs to the person or persons who is or are advertising it, it appears unquestionable that only its owner or owners has or have the right to write or carry whatsoever they may wish on it as long as that is not morally offensive, culturally demeaning, politically (constitutionally) unacceptable, or socially embarrassing.

If what is written on the vehicle is of normal immediate or future economic benefit to the owner or owners, it is rather difficult to see how that can be against the interests of any municipal authority.

Some vehicles carry advertisements about sports events, some about church occasions, some about political organisations (their names or activities), some about their company’s commercial or industrial interests or locations.

How does the controversial by-law regard such vehicles and their advertisements? How about those people who wear clothing emblazoned with adverts about whatever?

If that by-law were to be logically extended, it should deal with prostitutes who roam the city’s streets and avenues every night, selling sexual services which they advertise by exposing much more of their bodies than they cover.

The country’s courts have, however, declared that what prostitutes do is not a crime at law as long as they are no complainants against them.

Similarly, since there are no complainants against motor vehicles bearing advertisements, one can reasonably assume that there is, therefore, no crime or offence.

In any case, it is unjust for municipal authorities to regard themselves as complainants in that they are responsible for framing and passing municipal by-laws. It is, in effect, unconstitutional for local government authorities to enact by-laws or ordinances over the violation of which the same authorities act as courts of law or arbitrators.

That is tantamount, in effect, to them acting as both local parliaments and courts, combining legislative and judicial functions in one and the same authority. That is what happens when municipal authorities enact by-laws, tow away motor vehicles and fine their owners to release them.

In case this layman’s opinion is erroneous, the author of this article stands to be corrected or enlightened by a professional opinion based on Zimbabwe’s constitutional provisions as well as on the tenets of the country’s Roman-Dutch law practices and traditions.

However, whatever one may think and say about that by–law, it is not defensible to enact a law that has the effect of prohibiting one from writing on one’s vehicle a notice or message to promote one’s interests.

It is a controversial by-law in that municipal councils own the geographical space within their boundaries and the aerial space above that land or ground, but not the vehicles owned by residents on that land, or the aircrafts flying in the space over that area.

A municipal authority that says mobile advertising media are unlawful is to all intents and purposes outlawing sales promotions conducted by mobile commercial personnel and those occasionally held outside some department stores and/ or supermarkets.

If that is correct, as it is in logical terms, then we can say that that by-law is against the interests of the people at large.

It serves narrow rather than broad interests of the Bulawayo city community. It is a bad by-law and must be removed from the Bulawayo municipal books.

Meanwhile, municipal authorities, like the country’s legislative institutions, would be well advised to be guided in their enactment process by the highly respected, democratic Jeremy Bentham principle which states that the best law is that which serves most interests of most people most of the time.

Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu is a retired, Bulawayo – based journalist. He can be contacted on cell 0734 328 136 or through email. [email protected]