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Yeukai Karengezeka Herald Correspondent

Harare City Council’s privately-owned company, City Parking, has hiked parking tariffs in the central business district (CBD) and surrounding areas by 150 percent with effect from tomorrow.

In a public notice, City Parking announced that parking in the inner CBD will now cost $5 per hour and $3 for 30 minutes, while in the peripheral of the CBD it will now cost $3 per hour.

“This notice serves to inform the motoring public that the parking tariffs in Harare CBD have been adjusted as follows. Inner CBD boarded by Simon Muzenda Street, Herbert Chitepo, Rotten Row and Kenneth Kaunda costs $5 per hour and $3 for 30 minutes,” said the firm.

“The peripheral CBD (streets beyond the above) will be $3 per hour.”

In an interview, City Parking public relations manager Mr Francis Mandaza said the new fees had been triggered by rising operation costs.

“First, we are urging motorists to pay the parking fees to avoid inconveniences,” he said.

“The amounts we were charging in the past of $2 per hour lost value a long time ago due to inflation and we were not able to meet our rising operational costs.

“Our suppliers for uniforms, till rolls and license fees for the system all increased their prices. Even bank interests on the running loans that we have were also hiked.”

Mr Mandaza said the company was going to introduce a mobile application to make payments easier and avoid inconveniences to customers.

“We are going to introduce a mobile application soon that our customers in Harare would be able to download on app store,” he said.

“When you park your vehicle, one does not necessarily need to pay to the parking marshal. It has a user interface where one can put his or her registration number since the system integrates with various online payment platforms like EcoCash, TeleCash, One Wallet and banks.

“This is because we have been receiving complaints from motorists saying they fail to locate parking marshals and end up being penalised for not paying parking fees. With the new system, you can pay from anywhere.”