The City of Harare says it’s parking services entity City Parking has not been given powers to arrest traffic offenders in the Central business district.
Harare has intensified efforts to bring sanity within the CBD including mandating City Parking marshals power to clamp and fine traffic offenders.
In an interview with 263Chat, City of Harare acting communications manager Innocent Ruwende said City Parking officials will only be assisting municipal police officers to enforce bylaws.
“We have not given them powers but we are assisting each other in enforcing bylaws. As you know City Parking is a company 100% owned by council so we can’t recruit more officers when we have the capacity to deal with the situation. Our enforcement requires more officers so we will be assisting each other,” said Ruwende.
Motorists who spoke to this publication welcomed the move but expressed concern over the conduct of officers deployed to carry out the exercise.
“The move sounds great but I have reservations in the manner some of the council personnel conducts itself. In some instances you are fined as you disembark from your vehicle for straddling the parking lines by the fewest of centimeters. Instead of just alerting me why give me a ticket, this is breeding corruption,” said one taxi driver.
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) director Rueben Akili said the current exercise may not yield much because of corruption.
“City Park just needed to be a Council department, so for the local authority to engage the same it means City Park can be able to do it alone. The current arrangement cannot yield much result, in our view the issue of municipal police and enforcement of bylaws has been marred with corruption and if they are no mechanisms to deal with that this arrangement is likely to fuel corruption. There is need for clear modalities on how corruption is going to be reported,” said Akili.
