CITY Parking, the firm that manages parking bays in Harare’s central business district (CBD), has revealed that it is a private company that is not subject to public scrutiny under the Public Finance Management Act.
The company’s managing director Simon Muzviyo revealed this yesterday when he appeared before the Chalton Hwende-led Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Accounts.
He said City Parking was a private company not subject to public scrutiny.
However, legislators questioned why the City of Harare created a private company that collects revenue from motorists.
“We do not deny that we are liable to scrutiny, hence our presence here, but it is through the shareholder,” Muzviyo said.
“If council takes over City Parking, will not survive.”
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Legislators questioned why there have been complaints from the public over the absence of parking marshals on bays.
“There has been a lot of outcry from the motoring public which started from February 2023, that is when we were assigned and delegated enforcement powers,” Muzviyo said.
“From the strategies we have done, we have a customer complaints analysis, but there is a decline in terms of the number of complaints.
“We have developed a number of solutions that do not include parking marshals, for example issuance of a QR code to scan and buy your parking [disc] in the absence of a marshal.”
He said because of technology, there was a need to eliminate human involvement.
The issue of exorbitant parking fines has caused outrage in Harare, resulting in clashes between motorists and parking marshals, who have the mandate to clamp vehicles and fine traffic offenders, which is meant to decongest the city centre.