Pretoria - Motorists are furious following the 100% hike in retrieval fees for cars impounded by the metro police for parking illegally.
The fees have risen from R750 to R1500 per car with effect from 1July and motorists are hopping mad. They say the city should not allow this in view of the parking shortage owing to road works and road closures across the CBD.
On top of the R1500 retrieval fee, motorists have to pay an additional R60 storage fee for each day their car remains in the police pound, until it is fetched.
On average 35 and 40 cars are being towed daily, meaning the city makes no less than R50 000 a day from towing away illegally parked cars.
With nowhere to park, those who visit the city end up being guided by touts into spaces where it is illegal to park, only to have their vehicles towed away.
Some motorists blamed the Tshwane metro for implementing “haphazard” street construction without considering the resulting traffic congestion or its economic impact on drivers.
Since the development of the bus rapid transit system, some streets in the city centre have been closed, causing daily traffic jams.
Harsh stance
On Sunday scores of motorists made their way to the TMPD pound in Madiba Street to collect their vehicles after they had been towed away.
Mornay Abrahams complained about the lack of parking space in the city and said he felt harassed by the harsh stance adopted by metro police.
He has had to cancel important appointments in the CBD many times, he said, because of traffic gridlocks and harassment by self-appointed parking attendants.
He fell victim to impounding when his Renault Sandero was towed away by the TMPD for parking in a spot in Church Square. Abrahams had to be in court and couldn’t find a parking spot close to the court in Madiba Street. He was led by parking attendants to Church Square for parking.
To his dismay when he retuned he was told his car had been impounded.
“It is absolutely ridiculous. The city is congested because of road works and continuous construction. One can never find parking. You leave your vehicle parked outside for a minute and a fleet of tow trucks hastily take your car away,” he said.
Not impressed
Another annoyed motorist who was driving out of the metro police pound said she was not impressed.
Lesego Mogadime says she does a lot of a business in the city. She needs to be accompanied by somebody when she drives in the Pretoria CBD so that while she does business someone can try to find parking. At times she travels alone and is forced to park in illegal parking spots. This was the second time her car had been impounded.
She says she was also forced to pay the parking attendants who barricade major streets with cones and construction site markers.
“In this city, anybody can block a car. The metro cops are aware of it because I have seen these touts opening the way for marked Tshwane metro police cars. They blocked me and the metro officers turned a blind eye."
The city’s metro police have accused motorists of being ignorant and failing to adhere to the law by choosing to park at bus stops, loading zones and on pavements.
Metro police spokesman Inspector Phindile Molefe acknowledged that there was a problem but said it was no excuse for motorists to park anywhere they pleased.
He said they were annoyed with motorists who believed they could park anywhere in the CBD, despite knowing that there are parking bays.
“Depending on the availability of our trucks, we can tow away up to 40 cars a day, but the drivers usually collect the cars within hours of them being in the pound."
Molefe said metro police weren’t selective when towing cars, dispelling the notion that government vehicles were not towed.
Molefe advised motorists to use the parking areas provided by the city. One is at Nana Sita and Thabo Sehume Streets, Lillian Ngoyi Streets, and another at the Sammy Marks centre. However, motorists said sometimes these places were full, or too far from where they wanted to do business in the city.
Pretoria News