THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) and parking company, Tendy Three Investment (Pvt) Limited, have agreed terms on streamlining city by-laws which will, among other things, see city health facilities, hospitals and pharmacies getting additional emergency parking bays.
BCC contracted TTI in 2022 to manage parking in the city under a US$2 million public-private partnership which was structured on a build, operate and transfer arrangement through which the local authority hoped to raise income and create employment.
In a joint notice, Bulawayo town clerk Christopher Dube and TTI managing director Lizwe Mabuza said mayor David Coltart met the company’s senior management on May 3 this year to discuss the partnership’s operations.
“The two parties had constructive discussions and agreed on a range of measures to ensure that parking management and enforcement of the parking by-laws continue to be streamlined in the City of Bulawayo,” partly read the joint notice.
“These include reducing the turnaround time in handling cases of clamped vehicles driven by the elderly, disabled and people of ill health.
“Clearer visibility of the call centre phone numbers on all tickets issued by TTI for members of the public to contact when clamped or when they have a complaint [sic].”
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Other agreed points were that they should expedite the response time for all appeals made, particularly where elderly, sick or disabled people are involved. The parties also agreed that BCC and TTI will jointly conduct a survey of medical facilities including hospitals and pharmacies in the city with a view to allocate additional emergency parking bays.
BCC and TTI will also conduct refresher courses and further training for its employees to instil good customer care.
Some motorists have occasionally complained of harassment by some of the TTI workers, especially clamping teams.
“The City of Bulawayo will review its own internal processes on the acquisition of carriageway exemption discs for senior citizens. They are further reminded to ensure they have all documents required for exemption,” the notice read.
“The City of Bulawayo and TTI will embark on an educational campaign to ensure that the public is better informed about the dos and don’ts in terms of the city of Bulawayo clamping and towing away by-laws.”