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Herald Reporter

Harare’s traffic parking utility, City Parking, has given the authority about $1,3 million from parkades and parking lots across the city.

Since its inception in 2013, City Parking has contributed $9 320 000 and a new contribution model agreed with the local authority has seen a jump in contributions in the past few months.

“This year, City Parking has contributed an average of $1 320 000 per month from May-September on a rate agreed upon by council, whereby we pay 16 percent of what we collect, and we have religiously paid plus or minus $400 000,” Mr Simon Muzviyo, managing director of City Parking, told The Herald yesterday.

Mr Muzviyo said City Parking, a privately-run company in which Harare City Council is the sole shareholder, had tightened control on financial management to avoid leakages while the company’s books of accounts are audited by external auditors.

He said the parking operation had perennially made losses.

“Before privatisation, the parking account at City of Harare used to incur a deficit, and was being bailed out by the rates accounts,” he explained.

“The privatisation strategy had the immediate effect of eliminating the deficit situation from the parking account.

“We are now talking about the parking function contributing to council fiscus, instead of the City Treasury subsidising the parking function.”

He said the company wanted to ensure a functional and efficient system.

“A well-functioning parking operation is one that creates adequate parking bays to enable the transacting of business in the CBD,” said Mr Muzviyo.

“Availability of parking space in the CBD is regulated by limiting parking time per area per motorists through the levying of higher fees for long parking bay occupation, penalties for overstaying in parking bay and application of punitive measures for non-compliance.

“An effective parking system is one that encourages high turnover and use of a parking bay in the CBD.

“Such a system creates parking space for other persons to park and transact business in the CBD.

“The failure to provide parking space in the CBD to those wanting to do business militates against the growth of business in the CBD.”

He said their mandate was to ensure that parking in the CBD is shared by motorists who want to transact business in the CBD.

“It is impossible to have adequate bays for all motorists who want to transact in the CBD: accordingly, the parking fee actually acts as an incentive for motorists to vacate bays so that others may use them to transact business,” he said.

There are about 6 000 parking bays in the CBD.

He revealed to The Herald that the operations of touts and street people who  charge less for their services than City Parking was a challenge.

A total of 1 200 bays had been rendered unoperational as they hd been illegally taken over by different stakeholders.