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The Sunday Mail, 21

September 1980  

SALISBURY City Councillor Sam Levy has called for stringent measures to control Salisbury taxi drivers who were breaking traffic and parking regulations, and in some cases intimidating parking supervisors.  

“They have become a menace in some areas because they double and treble park across loading ramps, interfering with the businesses using them,” Councillor Levy said last week.  

“In some instances, I have seen taxi drivers abuse parking supervisors who told them to move on. Once, I heard a taxi-driver yell (in his own language) “beat him, beat him,” at a supervisor.  

Much of the problem might be due to the shortage of official parking bays provided for taxis by the municipality. There were about 450 taxis operating in Salisbury, but only 34 parking bays, Mr Levy said.  

Municipal policy in the past has been to let the taxi companies and the individual taxi-drivers deal with the parking problem themselves. Taxis are not allowed to use public parking spaces.  

If the taxi companies exercised proper control over their drivers, these situations would not arise. 

Legislation should be enacted holding the companies responsible for the actions of their drivers and putting their operating licenses at risk if their drivers abuse the law,” Mr Levy said.  

At Mr Levy’s urging, the Town Planning and Works Committee last week instructed the Director of Works to study and report on the situation.  

Mr Pat Travers, financial controller of Rixi Taxis, said it was his company’s policy to discourage drivers from double parking and other violations of municipal by-laws.  

LESSONS FOR TODAY 

 With the increase of the number of automobiles, city parking has become a very serious traffic problem in the Central Business District.  

 Regulations in the transport sector, especially the public transportation sector is highly essential, hence the authorities need to make sure that taxi drivers adhere to them.  

 Designating bays for parking also ensures that drivers and operators pay parking fees, thereby avoiding unregistered taxis from operating.  

 Government, through the relevant Ministry should also make sure that an efficient transport system is put in place so that people do not spend large amounts of hiring taxis. 

 The introduction of the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company bus scheme by the Government has also brought sanity in the public transport system, but more needs to be done.  

 Law enforcement agents should always be on the look-out for traffic offenders, especially those that overload their vehicles, without due regard to Covid-19 guidelines.