adminBlessings Chidakwa and Sallomy Matare
City Parking is losing thousands of dollars in potential revenue daily as unregistered vehicles are enjoying free parking in Harare’s central business district (CBD).
While chaos and lawlessness continue to reign supreme in Harare, the City Parking system has no mechanism to account for its losses from unregistered vehicles as it only tracks cars using number plates.
There are fears of corruption amid indications that the City Parking officials are conniving with some motorists to undercharge them.
A survey by The Herald observed that some cars were not paying parking fees.
Parking in the CBD now costs $10 per hour with effect from January 2 and about 40 cars had no parking receipts displayed at the Ximex Mall area.
A city parking official around the area who spoke on condition of anonymity said motorists with unregistered vehicles were reluctant to pay.
“The challenge here is that owners of these unregistered vehicles refuse to pay parking fees as they know that our system cannot trace them. They enjoy the cat-and-mouse chase with law enforcement agents. When there is a police crackdown they all flee, but to us we would have suffered a loss as we can’t recover our dues unlike registered cars we can trace,” said the official.
The official was rather evasive when asked about registered vehicles that were also enjoying free parking.
City Parking public relations manager Mr Francis Mandaza confirmed that the firm was having a hard time collecting fees.
“It is true that we are not collecting money from that area (Ximex Mall), but it is not because we have an arrangement with them. There is general lawlessness around the area,” he said
“We have on numerous occasions sought the services of ZRP and reported cases of violence and abuse against our staff. It is an issue that calls for urgent joint efforts and we will not rest until we reclaim that space and make it operational just like any other areas.”
Online Reporter