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WE hail the police for effectively clamping down on rowdy touts and rank marshals who have been terrorising motorists and pedestrians in and around the city.
Though touting is illegal, it is amazing how these touts and rank marshals have been left to flourish even in the face of clear evidence of sexual harassment of innocent women some of whom have been publicly stripped for daring to wear what they want.
It is thus hardly surprising that the touts, who have appointed themselves the moral police, had the nerve to challenge the police on Monday as they have been left to believe they are above the law.
These people, who are not only foul mouthed, but are disposed to violence to get their way, have become a law unto themselves on city streets and terminuses where they charge public transporters for picking up passengers on areas they have declared their fiefdoms.
We urge the police to go a step further and rescue motorists from the self-appointed parking attendants who have parcelled city parking bays between themselves and charge motorists for using the bays, prejudicing the city of thousands of dollars in potential revenue through parking scams.
While the City has its own parking attendants, it is surprising that city fathers still leave some self-proclaimed parking attendants to apportion themselves a share of the parking bays.
The police and city fathers are nursing a cancer which will one day seek to consume them, it is better to do what is done with all cancers, nip the situation in the bud.
Motorists have no choice though, as they are forced to pay lest the self-appointed attendants do something to the car to force compliance and this has inadvertently taken the form of scratching the paint work or deflating the tyres.
Both the scores of touts and rank marshals who were arrested on charges of public violence and the over-grown street adults who have appointed themselves parking attendants are guilty of the same crime, extorting money from the public for what they do not own.
These two groups daily make the lives of road users a living hell.
Ironically, municipal police officers have been content to look the other side instead of ridding the city of these unsavoury individuals.
It is not uncommon to see municipal police officers clamping vehicles without parking discs while leaving these touts to their devices.
It appears it has not even dawned on the city fathers that the money being pocketed by these touts and rank marshals, would go a long way in boosting the city’s revenue.
Apart from being a nuisance to road users, the touts are also hitting the city in the pocket.
Online Reporter