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Senior Reporter
Harare City Council’s parking unit, City Parking (Pvt) Ltd, will sell parking by the minute to motorists who opt for a smart-park personal parking meter, an in-vehicle device which is given to motorists for free.

While the company will continue offering parking for cash, with motorists paying by the hour, it is now offering the cashless platform with pre-paid parking and a simple meter. City Parking general manager Mr Simon Muzviyo said the new system will improve accountability for revenue collection. He said they were not yet phasing out the old system.

“Motorists prepay for parking by paying cash over the counter. We load parking time in the device and each time the motorist parks they activate and display the meter on the driver’s window. The meter starts billing per minute from the pre-loaded amount,” he said.

“On driving off,the motorist simply switches off the meter and billing stops. We are not phasing out the old system, but we are offering motorists different payment platforms that will bring convenience.”

Motorists are required to pay a refundable $5 deposit which City Parking says is a security measure.

City Parking says the advantage of the device is that there is no cash involved as motorists pay just for the period they are parked. Under the old system one pays for an hour even when they spend five minutes in a parking bay.

Meanwhile, Harare’s former partner in the EasiPark parking management business, EasiHold (Pvt) Ltd, removed equipment at the parkades and City Parking is currently using a manual system as a temporary measure.

Last year, Harare and Easihold reached an agreement which saw the city forking out $274 000 as part of the parting terms.

The deal with EasiHold, had irretrievably broken down, with each party accusing the other of clandestinely opening bank accounts to divert funds.

According to the deal, EasiHold was entitled to repatriate the parking equipment to a country of their choice and it had the sole responsibility to clear and export the equipment.

Mr Muzviyo said, “It is true the equipment was removed and we have reverted to the manual system as a temporary measure; we are in the process of installing a new parkades parking system which will completed before end of the first quarter.”