Harare City Council has bowed down to pressure from motorists following an uproar over the US$132 fine the local authority was charging for failing to pay parking fees on time.
Last week, the council’s subsidiary, City Parking, deployed its marshals who were clamping all vehicles whose owners were delaying paying US$1 parking fees.
Motorists who delayed paying the US$1 parking fees were fined US$132 for their vehicles to be unclamped.
Addressing council officials on Monday, 13 March, Harare Mayor Councilor, Jacob Mafume said motorists who delay paying parking fees by two hours will be allowed to pay. NewsDay quoted Mafume as saying:
We have developed a protocol that a motorist first pays US$1. However, because of delays of two hours, the motorist will be allowed to pay for the arrears ticket.
Those motorists with large sums of arrears are the ones to be clamped for failure to pay the stipulated (fee).
We delayed the implementation of towing-away and storage charges. The ticket was US$229 for towing and storage on the same day.
If a vehicle is clamped, a person is given time to pay for the offence before clamping and towing charges can begin to operate.
Our fines are US$50, and clamping charges US$65, which sum up to US$132 after value-added tax.
We will delay the implementation of the clamping charges so that if you pay your fine within the stipulated period, then the charge for the clamping will not accrue, hence reducing the fine significantly.
We need to increase our payment system so that people can pay on the EcoCash platform and other service providers and also our WhatsApp chatbot.
Mafume reminded Harare motorists that stepping on white lines, double parking and wrong parking, are traffic offences.
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