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Clr Chikozho

Freedom Mupanedemo Midlands Bureau
Gweru City Council will soon introduce a new electronic parking system and do away with the old system that has seen the local authority clashing with motorists. Under the current system, spike and clamp-wielding council officials are deployed on the streets and start moving around selling manual tickets to parked drivers.

Vehicles found without tickets are immediately clamped even in circumstances when motorists park well before the officials are deployed on the streets. One has to fork out at least $85, which is only paid at Town House for a clamp to be removed. In an interview, Gweru mayor Councillor Charles Chikozho said the local authority was working on ways to introduce a new electronic parking system.

“Our parking system has been receiving major criticism and as council we are moving on with technology and working on a new system that is electronic. We want to do away with this old system where motorists are clamped just because they don’t have a parking disk on them. It has caused a lot of noise so we have said let’s move with technology,” he said.

Clr Chikozho said the new system would also help reduce corruption among council officials on the streets.

“Under the current system, a corrupt official can just get money from motorist without logging him or her. Under the new system, we want all our streets captured in a data so that as the vehicle parks it is recognized from the office and automatically logged in,” he said.