BCC raises $2 million from traffic tickets

THE Bulawayo City Council has since the beginning of the year issued traffic tickets worth more than $2 million to motorists in the city for various offences, chief among them illegal picking and dropping of passengers.

Council chamber secretary Mrs Sikhangele Zhou said municipal police have issued more than 124 000 tickets since January.

"Since January we have issued 124 146 with the value of approximately $2 million. Prevalent offences include the illegal picking and dropping of passengers, failure to display pre-paid parking discs and failure to produce route authority by commuter omnibuses.

"However, despite our tight stance in terms of regulating the city's traffic, we are still facing a number of challenges, chief among these being the use of unregistered motor vehicles in the carriage of passengers and speeding commuter omnibuses that speed off before we are able to penalise them," she said.

Mrs Zhou said while the city had 720 pre-paid parking bays, private organisations or individuals could still approach the local authority for reserved parking spots.

She said the local authority was continuously forced to play cat and mouse games with commuter omnibus operators who found various ways to avoid being penalised.

"These operators have become innovative, with some either covering their number plates or even tampering with them so that our officers cannot identify them, this thus makes it difficult for us to penalise them, which is why we are moving forward with our transport policy which will ensure that there is order within the public transporting sector.

"For our part we will continue having joint taskforces with the police, Zinara and Vehicle Inspection Department to try and curb all these anomalies.

Further where we find that a motorist is being impossible we have the right of towing the vehicle to our holding section where the motorist will incur the storage and towing charges."

She revealed that as per Government and council regulations on public transport operators, for someone to operate he/she should have; operator's licence, route authority, fitness certificate, a licensed driver, use of designated pick up points, use of designated routes and the carriage as per number or capacity approved by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development.

In Bulawayo's Central Business District, parking is paid for as from 8am to 5pm on week days and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays. It is free on Sundays and public holidays. Public service vehicles use various termini and designated routes. Metered taxis use designated taxi bays marked in yellow.

Last year, Bulawayo City Council came under fire from residents for announcing that the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing had approved the clamping and towing away of vehicles that violate the city by-laws.

Residents contended that the parking fees charged by council were too high. Bulawayo-based lawyer Mr Job Sibanda last year dragged the city council to court seeking an order declaring the local authority's by-laws on the clamping and towing away of vehicles a nullity arguing that they are unconstitutional.