A Fordsburg man who has lived at the same address for 57 years has recently been told by the police that he can’t park his car outside his house anymore.
Mahendra Gokal grew up on Lovers Walk in Fordsburg, where he still lives and operates his business. His son Rakesh also lives there with his family.
In the past three weeks, the Gokals started receiving notices for fines for parking their cars on the road where they have always parked. They have received four notices in this period.
The notices say the fines will be sent in the post, but do not say how much they will be.
“If they were illegally parked, we could understand,” said Gokal senior.
However, on the street there are no “no parking/stopping” signs and no yellow lines, except around the corners at the intersections of the roads, he said.
Joburg metro police department spokesman Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said the fines were part of a clampdown on traffic offences.
He said an increase in traffic volumes and parking offences, especially double parking, was creating a problem for traffic flow.
He said Lovers Walk was a narrow one-way road and that cars parked on the sides of the road or within 5m of an intersection blocked traffic.
The latest incident follows an increase in fines issued for kerbside parking in Joburg since the City of Joburg’s parking management system began in Braamfontein and the CBD last year. Motorists need to pay a parking marshal R8 an hour to park in a designated bay.
The system will roll out to Fordsburg, Rosebank, Roodepoort, Melville, Florida and Norwood.
“If we don’t argue, it will be an ongoing issue. We will be at their mercy,” said Gokal.