Bulawayo motorists face bills of US$400 per month as paid parking returns

Company awarded tender says it will take 70 percent of proceeds, with city getting 30 percent

Minting it ... Parking marshals from Parking Solutions, the company awarded tender by City of Bulawayo

BULAWAYO – Bulawayo residents are used to parking anywhere in the city for free – but that is about to change.

A company recently awarded a tender to provide parking solutions for the city on Tuesday announced shock charges which could see motorists pay US$16 daily between 8AM and 5PM.

Tendy Three Investments, trading as Parking Solutions, says motorists will part with US$1 for 30 minutes parking in the CBD. One hour is US$2, two hours US$4 and a full day US$16.

For motorists working a six-day week in the CBD, they could find themselves having to fork out at least US$100 weekly or US$400 per month.

The City of Bulawayo said on Twitter that the city will be divided into three zones, with parking getting more expensive the deeper one gets into the CBD.

Zone 2 rates will be US$1 per hour and Zone 3 US$1 for two hours.

Bongani Nyathi, Parking Solutions’ managing director, said they were targeting to start charging from February 8.

“Our equipment arrived two weeks ago and we have started installing it along Jason Moyo Avenue. We are doing this in phases and under phase one, we are expecting to create 1,000 parking bays in the city with more bays coming up under other phases,” Nyathi told ZimLive.

He said some of the streets covered under phase one will include sections of Five Street and Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo between 8^th and 11^th Avenue, and most of Leopold Takawira Avenue.

He said they had engaged six trainee marshals, with more to be recruited in phases.

“We are training 100 people currently. Our system is quite complex and so we have to take them in small batches. They do theory and go on to practicals before being examined. Only those who pass will be engaged and those who fail can re-apply later,” he said.

He said they received thousands of applications and they were processing them until they meet their target of 500 parking attendants.

“We are in partnership with the BCC and we invested US$2.2 million. Our arrangement is that we get 70 percent of the proceeds, while BCC gets 30 percent as we are bringing the equipment and will be running the system,” said Nyathi.

In Harare, parking charges are presently US$1 per hour or Z$120. The tender was awarded to City Parking, a company wholly owned by the city.