ZAPU is mulling legal action against the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) over its controversial parking management system.
The opposition party petitioned the local authority on March 21 but did not receive a satisfactory response.
Now the party is planning on taking the legal route.
Tendy Three Investments (TTI) is managing the city’s smart parking system and motorists are forced to pay a full US$1 at each parking bay, even though some park at that spot for less than an hour.
“With US$1, one must be able to park anywhere without the money having expired at a certain parking bay. At the same time, we are also saying the US$1 is a bit heavy because there is nowhere where people earn an average of US$8 a day under Zimbabwe’s ailing economy, which is the parking cost a motorist pays, should one spend the whole day in town, moving from one spot to another,” said ZAPU Bulawayo Provincial Chairperson, Thembinkosi Vincent Twala in an interview with CITE.
The ZAPU provincial chair said since BCC and TTI were ‘quiet,’ the party could take legal action against them.
“If it means we have to go the legal route, we have to because we can’t let our people suffer. We are the mother party and we must protect the public in Bulawayo,” Twala remarked.
Twala observed that TTI has been expanding its operations throughout the Central Business District yet public concerns were ignored.
“Their charging regime is not proper, say one does their shopping at OK supermarket then moves to TM supermarket, the US$1 for that particular hour must be carried over, not to say a motorist pays a dollar here and there at different parking bays,” he said.
“This is why we want to engage these authorities and make them see sense and we reach a compromise.”
Already, BCC and TTI are facing a legal suit filed by one Bulawayo lawyer who argues that the parking costs are administrative failures, which are against the interests of motorists while both BCC and TTI have failed to explain their charging reasons to the public.
In July 2022, BCC reported that it had received US$17 000 and ZWL$10. 5 million from TTI’s car parking system since its inception.
TTI remits 30 percent of the revenue it makes to BCC, as per agreement.
