BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) yesterday hailed the approval of its parking system by Cabinet, saying the long-awaited project would boost the financially-troubled local authority’s purse.
The proposed US$2 million Bulawayo city parking management system will see a surveillance system being installed on all roads in the city.
The project is a public private partnership between BCC, contributing 30%, and Tendy Three (Pvt) Ltd, contributing 70%.
“This is a project that we believe will augment our revenue inflows and aid our infrastructure rehabilitation in terms of roads and street lighting,” mayor Solomon Mguni told Southern Eye.
“We are grateful to Cabinet for the approval of one of the few interventions that the council is doing to ease the burden on ratepayers.”
Bulawayo Residents Association chairperson Winos Dube said: “If the move is coming to bring sanity and profit or benefits to the council, let it be implemented. As residents, we want the best out of this initiative.”
The parking tender deal caused divisions among city fathers, a development that saw the government taking an interest in the matter and launching a probe into BCC tender and procurement processes.
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This was after outrage had been expressed over the engagement of Harare City Council’s Easypark to manage the project.
The Bulawayo city parking management services tender was cancelled in 2012 by BCC despite having been granted to Megalithic Marketing Private Limited.
The BCC cited a “shambolic tendering” process as the reason for cancelling the tender.
This resulted in a court battle with the company contesting the council’s decision.
In April 2019, the BCC shortlisted — Ducretion Logistics Private Limited and Lauvax Trading Private Limited for the tender to manage the city’s parking system, before Cabinet approved the deal this week.
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