The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
THE percentage occupancy of vehicle parking bays under the new parking management system remains dismally low, fluctuating between 10 and 20 percent as motorists continue to boycott the system at the Bulawayo Central Business District (CBD).
Bulawayo City Council (BCC) last year entered into a partnership with Tendy Three Investments (TTI) for the implementation of a parking management system in the city, with the first bays starting to operate on Friday 18 February 2022.
Motorists, businesses and residents reacted by blasting the local authority for overcharging and not consulting in the implementation of the project.
The backlash forced council to get rid of the prime parking bays that were charging US$1 for 30 mins, with now all the bays charging US$1 for one hour.
Over a month since the system was launched, the local authority has revealed that the percentage occupancy still remains dismally low as motorists continue to boycott the bays that have the system operational.
BCC corporate communications manager, Mrs Nesisa Mpofu however, said they were not worried because the first month has mainly been on the job training of parking marshals.
“Currently 50 marshals have been trained and the training was in batches of seven to 12 marshals a week.
700 parking bays have been covered to date as we are busy paint marking and patching the other bays.
With regards to the percentage occupancy of the parking bays where collection of parking fees has been rolled out it has been noted that it fluctuates between 10 percent and 20 percent.
It is expected through human behaviour that motorists will try and avoid parking in bays where they are supposed to pay,” said Mrs Mpofu.
She said the picture of revenues will only be seen during the month of April where it is estimated that 1 000 parking bays will have been covered and that the required number of marshals will have been trained and working on these 1 000 bays.
Mrs Mpofu said TTI had observed that at 5pm and also on Sundays where parking is free, people flock into those bays and flood them.
“The next step is to roll out at least 3 000 more parking bays giving a total of a minimum of 4 000 parking bays.
This will happen in the third or fourth week of April 2022.
Rolling out to a wider range of parking bays is expected to stabilise the percentage occupancy in the regions of 25 percent to 35 percent.
These are the trends with any roll out and the same is expected for Bulawayo.
“It is expected that we should have covered the whole project area by October 2022 although there are efforts to cover the greater part bounded by Leopold Takawira and 10th Avenue by end of April 2022.
It has to be noted that the project is in phase mode,” said Mrs Mpofu.
Meanwhile, the local authority has defended the employment of enforcement officers by TTI that have, for the past couple of weeks been clamping vehicles and towing them away for non compliance in parking spaces.
Mrs Mpofu said the individuals had the mandate from the local authority to carry out the clampings as per the conditions of the contract between BCC and TTI.
“The duties of the enforcement team and jurisdiction are outlined in the SI 63/2015 – Bulawayo City Council (Clamping and Tow Away) By Laws and the contract between Bulawayo City Council and Tendy Three Investments Private Limited.
Their duties entail clamping vehicles parked in contravention of City of Bulawayo clamping and Tow away by-laws.
They are effecting the statute in the area under the contract which is from Samuel Parirenyatwa to Lobengula Street and from Third Avenue to 15th Avenue even though some areas are yet to be covered in terms of smart parking,” she said.
She said in the said by-law an “authorised person” means any person employed or delegated by council to carry out any function in terms of these by laws.
Residents in the city have questioned the mandate of the enforcement officers, saying council had failed to inform residents that they had since ceded clamping authority to TTI.
Writing on his Facebook wall, Mr Dumisani Nyongolo Nkomo called on the local authority to address the matter urgently before it degenerates to chaos.
“Those grey uniformed or is it uninformed, maroon bereted parking guys are causing mayhem in Bulawayo City Centre.
They are moving around in a small truck (highly overloaded) with some hanging from the edge of the fast moving vehicle.
They are gleefully clamping vehicles, parking irregularly, driving at break neck speed among a litany of illegalities.
Can the city fathers urgently address this issue before this outfit becomes the incarnation of chaos and anarchy.
That company is behaving like a quasi-militia outfit and causing mayhem on the streets,” reads the post.
