Harare City Council has set its parking enforcement teams revenue targets for fines from clamping and boasts that it made US$76 582 in the seven days from November 10 to 17 by clamping 585 vehicles and towing 184, well above the targeted US$60 000.

Over 20 vehicles were towed away on each of the days while more than 55 were clamped.

The penalty for towing is US$60 while parking for one hour while displaying a disc costs US$1.

For clamping a light motor vehicle, council requires payment of a US$35 fine.

Most councils round the world set revenue targets for total parking fee income, which could be 100 percent from fees if everyone obeyed by-laws to 100 percent from fines if no one did.

Council spokesperson Mr Leslie Gwindi suggested the high level of parking fines was evidence of a "carefree attitude" by motorists, saying while the municipality welcomed such revenue inflows it was better if drivers simply obeyed parking by-laws.

He said the errant motorists had an "I don’t care attitude", as they knowingly do things in breach of the law.

On the other hand, a number of motorists interviewed yesterday said the large amount of money that council was raking in from them was an indication of a "flawed system" rather than of negligence on their part.

The motorists said the city should make available more convenient parking lots to cater for people who work near Market Square and the Kopje area.

The Fourth Street and Park Lane parking bays charge just US$1 per day, while city parkades charge up to US$10 for 10 hours of parking over a normal working day.

There are no city parking bays or parkades in downtown Harare, and motorists have said this forces them to sometimes park illegally if they have no parking disks.

Mr Gwindi said the city would always implement its by-laws with a view to maintaining sanity on the roads.

"We will not let loose our grip. For as long as motorists ignore the law we have no choice but to discipline them through clamping, towing and ticketing where necessary," he said.

Vehicle clamping and towing has been in practice in Harare since 2003 but since then the culture of displaying parking discs has generally not caught on.

Members of the public have pointed out that at times parking discs are not available from authorised distributors.

Motorist Mrs Maidei Banda, who said her car was recently towed, said: "The system has flaws and they only impact negatively on drivers.

"Sometimes parking discs are not available and what are we expected to do then? Should we stop driving our cars?

"And there are very few car parks in the city. In downtown it is very hard to find parking. Council should rectify this situation instead of making a lot of money from us without providing any real service."

She said security was also very low and council should be using the money it is collecting to protect their cars from thieves and vandals.

"We are forced to pay money to touts to watch over our cars. This should be council’s responsibility. They are making money and so they should deploy more people to protect our cars."

A visit to the city parking lots at Fourth Street and Park Lane yesterday revealed several lot of empty bays, suggesting under-use by motorists who it seems would rather risk having their vehicles clamped and towed away than buy parking discs.

herald