Bulawayo residents reject stupid parking fees

BULAWAYO United Residents Association (BURA) has appealed to Bulawayo City Council (BCC) to reduce the recently introduced parking fees which it says most motorists cannot afford.

BCC in partnership with a private company, Tendy Three International (TTI) introduced the new parking system last week.

Motorists are now required to pay US$1 for 30 minutes or ZW$120 in Zone One which is the prime parking zone and US$1 for one hour in Zone Two.

Zone One stretches from Leopold Takawira Avenue to 11th Avenue and Fife Street to Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Street.

Under the partnership, council receives 30 percent of the collected parking fees while TTI gets 70 percent.

In a letter to council Bura chairperson Mr Winos Dube said most motorists cannot afford the new parking fees hence the association was appealing to the city fathers to reduce the fees.

"While there is nothing wrong with implementing a parking system in the city, what we have gathered is that the majority of residents feel that the parking fees are exorbitant and beyond the reach of the ordinary residents.

This is in consideration of the average income of the residents which evidently cannot sustain the fees.

We are therefore, kindly requesting our respectable city fathers to revisit the fees and review them downwards so that motorists in the city are not over-burdened," reads the letter.

Mr Dube said most motorists said they were comfortable with the previous US$30 a month parking fees.

He said the association was therefore, appealing to council and its partner to consider the issue of affordability when reviewing the parking fees.

TTI won the bid to implement the parking system in July 2020 and got the green light from Cabinet for them to start operations in August last year after council had submitted their papers to the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (Zida).