BULAWAYO motorists have ignored calls to boycott parking in the central business district (CBD) in protest against Trendy Tree Investments (TTI)’s alleged exorbitant parking fees.
The Bulawayo Business Development Association (BBDA) recently called for a parking boycott with effect from Monday this week until Saturday.
TTI has been hogging headlines for the wrong reasons in recent weeks over its billing system, which has also been said to be irregular.
The business community has been organising the boycott for some weeks in their social media groups.
In a snap survey, Southern Eye observed that the streets were replete with vehicles. Some motorists were even spotted paying or being issued receipts by TTI marshals.
In an interview, Bulawayo businessman Farai Manganda said it was too soon to judge the outcome.
“It’s still early and besides, in some specific places that are usually full like the Haefelis area there were less cars than usual,” he said.
“I am excited at the development because our city fathers are stiff-necked and arrogant. We need to mount more pressure so that they understand that the people can’t afford their bills.”
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Manganda said council was not being sincere with residents.
“They created this problem to begin with because of their poor decisions. They closed Egodini and at the time they said it was temporary for renovations and construction of a mall.
“Now you have all those vehicles so many years later congesting the CBD and then they say TTI is there to reduce it when they created it,” he said.
Manganda accused council officials of lying about the situation in the CBD.
“The same applies to the artificial scenario that has been created along Luveve Road where we don’t know if it’s still a mine.
“Some of these people may be taking advantage of the election period so they want to confuse people. Another thing we need to have disclosed is how the TTI tender was awarded in 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when few people had access to the information,” Manganda added.
