Mayor speaks on TTI, Egodini

Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor

BULAWAYO Mayor, Councillor Solomon Mguni has said the city’s parking management partnership with Tendy Three Investments (TTI) is not a fundraising venture as has been suggested by those critical to the parking system.

The mayor said the project was meant to decongest the city and bring a semblance of order given the many ills that were obtaining from the parking spaces.

He also said his council had realised remarkable progress on the Egodini project although the sentiment among residents was that council has failed to finish the project. In an interview on some of the projects embarked on by the local authority in the past five years, Clr Mguni said the parking management project was primarily meant to decongest the city.

“In my view the parking management system project was misunderstood in the sense that people were led to believe that the project was meant to fundraise for council. The primary purpose for that project is to decongest the city, fight other ills that were

obtaining in the streets, inclusive of vending in car boots, car washing within parking areas, even mechanical works and repairs.

“Remember we had a parking system before which had a lot of leakages, so the automated parking management system was meant to close all those gaps. There were also high levels of theft from motor vehicles, if you ask for the records from the police you will note a phenomenal decline in these cases,” said the mayor.

He said people were ignoring the positives around the project inclusive of the fact that it was one of the projects that was consummated and completed during the council’s term of office, at the same time creating employment for a significant number of youths in the city.

“Yes, there are complaints that we try and balance, these include reports that this is pushing people out of business, in terms of the hours that they park, which we have tried to adjust every now and then.

When you look at it, Bulawayo has the cheapest parking fee compared to all other cities in the country.
“This project is now 75 percent complete and it has employed a number of people and it has achieved a number of key objectives like reducing crime and decongesting the city,” said Clr Mguni.

BCC and TTI entered into a partnership last year that has seen the latter rolling out the parking management system throughout the Central Business District, with the first paid bays coming into effect in February last year.

Although the system was met with resistance from motorists and the public, TTI has continued to realise an improvement in revenue collected, with motorists paying US$1 to park for an hour.

Regarding the contentious Egodini Bus Terminus rehabilitation project, which has taken over 10 years to complete, since it was mooted in 2012, the mayor said when they came into office in 2018 they inherited a project that was stagnant.

“Egodini Mall is a legacy project which we adopted in 2018 when we came in, having been mooted in 2012. Which means from 2012 to 2018, it was stagnant, that is a fact. When we came in, in October 2018, the first thing that we did was to commission a call centre, to ensure that all the processes regarding the engagement of contractors and menial labour is done under one roof at the site.

“We then finished the business of compensating property owners at the site, which was still pending. They were able to move out, subsequently we were able to hand over the site.

“I hear people saying the project started in 2012 but truth is we are the ones who did most of the work, from permits, handing over of the site and all the works which people see there today.

“In terms of the actual construction there was a slow start because of factors like Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 and 2021 but we leave Egodini in a better state than it was in 2018. If you go to the site now, there is the laying of bitumen, in terms of the taxi area, asphalt has been applied and I’m sure in a couple of weeks there will be the actual roofing,” added Clr Mguni.

He said, while some sections of society were calling for the termination of the contract with the developer, Terracotta, it was complicated in that there were legally binding contracts.

“Some people say we should terminate the contract, even this incoming group of councillors, some will think that there is no progress and it must be cancelled but if you compare what was there in 2017 and now, there is a remarkable difference but let’s not forget that these are contracts and you do not wake up and terminate, some of the delays were caused from council side like the issue of compensation,” he said.