HARARE – Motorists who fail to pay US$1 parking fees or omit topping up after expiry of their time limits within the Harare CBD’s parking bays are now liable to a hefty US$132 penalty fee imposed by city fathers.

The controversial policy directive has invited wide protests from residents who feel the city fathers are out to rob motorists of their hard-earned cash as opposed to any genuine attempt to bring sanity within the country’s busiest CBD.

In a statement Friday, the city said the shock decree was imposed “following consultations with key stakeholders concerning city parking enforcement operations” and the fines take effect from 10 March, 2023.

“Unpaid vehicles shall be clamped and fined $132.00 or equivalent after a 30 minute grace period,” the city fathers said.

“Paid vehicles shall be clamped and fined $132.00 or equivalent after an hour’s grace period from expiry.”

Authorities at Town House said the punitive fines are expected to “bring relief to the motoring public and increase compliance and order in the public interest”.

However, the harsh penalty regime has invited protests from some residents who feel city fathers are out to milk them.

Zanu PF legislator and businessman Supa Mandiwanzira was blunt in his dismissal of the city’s penalty regime as a scheme intended “harass” hard-pressed city motorists.

Mandiwanzira said the decision by the cash strapped local authority to hire more officers to clamp offending motorists’ cars as opposed to employing more parking marshals to attend to the motorists smacked of an attempt by authorities to raise more money than the real practice of enforcing traffic laws.

He added, “Nowhere in the world do you get penalised US$130 for an infraction of US$2. It’s unbelievable!

“So, it’s clearly a scheme and that scheme is unacceptable to us because it is harassing motorists, it is harassing residents of Harare.

“We call upon the mayor and his Triple C authorities in the council to make sure that people are not harassed.

“You have to understand the plight, the difficulties that Zimbabweans are going through and to charge them US$130; some do not even earn that kind of money.”

In its Friday statement, the Harare City Council said, “the level of the fine can only be reviewed trough a budgetary process which the city council is looking into.”

On-street parking fees in the Harare CBD is US$1 per hour or the Zim-dollar equivalent.

Prir to the imposition of the fine by authorities, a local motorist approached the High Court seeking an order declaring as unlawful, the practice of impounding motor vehicles by Harare Municipal police over alleged violation of city traffic laws.

Reason Mupanga of Seke argues the unpopular practice by city traffic enforcement authorities to force motorists to pay fines amounted to extortion.