Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
THE Victoria Falls Municipality has reintroduced parking fees and motorists will henceforth pay US$1 per hour to be allowed to park their vehicles in the Central Business District.
The local authority introduced the facility this week after suspending the policy a few years ago owing to operational challenges. Town Clerk, Mr Ronnie Dube, said the resort town is enforcing its by-laws to decongest the CBD and mobilise revenue for the municipality.
He said the local authority was engaging suppliers of automated devices for partnership in the project.
“Automated machines will detect time the car has been parked and clamp it once the time lapses. This will also help reduce human manipulation and corruption. We will get into partnerships and what happened to other towns will actually be a learning curve for us and we will deal with that at contract stage,” Mr Dube said.
Those who want to pre-pay for bays are allowed and council will help them barricade the area from other motorists. At present there are no special packages although tour operators and some motorists have cried foul saying their vehicles have to park in town in front of their offices.
Asked why the local authority was demanding payment in United States dollars, Mr Dube said the currency was legal tender and those willing to pay in local RTGS can do so at the prevailing interbank rate. For someone working in town, one will part with at least USD$8 or RTGS$42 at a rate of 1:6 to park a car for a day.
Some motorists have expressed concern saying the USD$1 per hour was too exorbitant. — @ncubeleon
Sidumisile Mabena
Online Reporter