admin
Crime Reporter
The Harare City Council in conjunction with law enforcement agents will soon embark on an operation to tow away or penalise people who have abandoned their vehicles in and around the city roads, in car parks and parking garages or just dumped in open spaces.
These old and unroadworthy cars are not just unsightly and taking up space in car parks and parking garages, but are also dangerous obstructions that can cause road accidents.
Some are even dumped near business premises belonging to other people, especially in industrial areas and shops in and around the city.
Most businesspeople owning these premises have been complaining over what amounts to the ultimate in littering.
In an interview yesterday, Harare mayor Councillor Jacob Mafume confirmed that council had embarked on the crackdown to tow away the vehicles.
“In Zimbabwe, we don’t have a scrap metal or a junk yard, where people put these cars, as you see in other countries where there is a place where cars are deposited,” he said. “So, what are we going to do? We have asked our city planners to identify a place where vehicles and those shells can be picked up and towed and put there.
“And we will ask people to deposit their vehicles there and if they don’t deposit their vehicles, we are going to fine people for littering those places.”
Clr Mafume said the good thing about such vehicles was that some of them have an identity and they will be able to know the owners through tracing using the number plates, before penalising them.
“However, we are going to remove all this scrap because people start saying they are doing a car sale and within a short time it becomes a scrap yard of old cars and cars that people want to recycle,” he said. “So, we are going to have a proper junk yard where people put these cars and if anyone needs to buy scrap, you buy it from there.
“We also have enough equipment to ferry and crush them, but we are doing it at an orderly place, at a junk yard where these things are done. Then they are crushed and sold as scrap metal. We might find that it can be actually be a revenue generation or business if it is done in a proper and orderly manner.
“But we will penalise those who are dumping junk everywhere, pretending to be doing car sales and they ended up having dangerous scrap metal that no one is picking up.”
In January, Harare City Council hiked tow away and storage fees, with motorists expected to pay US$100 or an equivalent of that at the official exchange rate to have an impounded car released and US$50 for storage per day.
The new fees were contained in a circular released by the council’s corporate and communications department.
Towing a 15-seater commuter omnibus cost US$120, up from US$50, and an 18-seater U$140 up from US$50 or an equivalent of that at the official exchange rate. Fees outside the city centre will attract an additional charge of US$10 or an equivalent of that in local currency at the official exchange rate per kilometre.
Conventional buses, lorries and articulated heavy lorries will pay a private contractor charge plus 50 percent penalty, storage and VAT.
On storage charges, commuter omnibuses will now pay US$50 from US$15, conventional buses and lorries will now have to fork out US$70, up from US$25, and articulated heavy lorries US$90 up from US$30.
Online Reporter