Zinara, council in parking row

Innocent Ruwende Municipal Reporter
The Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) has come under fire for trying to take over Harare City Council’s lucrative car parking business.

Harare City councillors accused Zinara of seeking support from the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing to take over the business.

Zinara reportedly argued that it had a better system than the one being used by the city’s parking concern, City Parking (Pvt) Ltd.

According to the business committee’s minutes of June 9 this year, councillors considered Zinara’s proposed takeover and expressed concern that meetings had been held between city officials and Zinara without the knowledge of council.

Town clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi reported that Zinara had shown interest in taking over the city’s street parking business, resulting in them seeking support from the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.

“This was regardless of a proposal that had been submitted to the organisation on the same matter in June 2014.

“The town clerk further reported that the minister had subsequently invited him and the director of Works Eng Philip Pfukwa to one of the meetings where it was agreed that Zinara should discuss these matters with City Parking and Harare Sunshine Board,” read part of the minutes.

Dr Mahachi told the council that a meeting was held with Zinara, where it was concluded that City Parking’s street parking system had the capacity to manage city traffic and that the proposal that City Parking had submitted to Zinara in June 2014 still stood.

“Zinara was urged to formally respond to the proposal. Their response is still being awaited. During discussions, the committee expressed concern on the manner Zinara was handling the matter. The committee was of the understanding that the City Parking system was robust enough to carry other service providers, including Zinara.”