Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Tendy Three Investments (TTI), the company that manages parking in Bulawayo’s central business district (CBD), says it has fired over 200 employees for clamping motorists indiscriminately and violating company policies.
TTI managing director Lizwe Mabuza told the Chronicle that they received complaints from motorists who said they were harassed by TTI employees and clamped for outstanding tickets of as little as US$5 which he said is against the company’s policy.
Mabuza asserted that TTI has zero tolerance for non-compliance to procedures by its employees, adding that every employee knows what constitutes an offence and what does not. Said Mabuza:
The position is very clear, a motorist owing anything below US$5 cannot be clamped.
The system easily picks that up once the customer comes to our offices for payment and once that is picked, we do not hesitate to relieve such an employee.
Why should we keep employees who keep on tarnishing our image, in fact to date since we started operating here, we have relieved over 200 employees of duty.
We get a lot of complaints against our employees especially the enforcers, those who do the clamping, but not every complaint is genuine.
Naturally, a motorist who has been clamped gets angry and as a means of trying to create a pure self, will want to accuse our employee of harassment and all sorts of allegations, while we listen we also look at the authenticity of those claims and in most cases, the employee would have done justice to duty.
In November 2023, the Local Government and Public Works Minister, Winston Chitando promulgated Statutory Instrument 220 of 2023 which approved Bulawayo’s 2023 clamping and tow-away by-laws.
The regulations gave TTI authority to ticket any motorist that drives or parks a vehicle without a valid licence disc within the city.
The by-laws also made it mandatory for all public service vehicles to have litter bins. According to Item 4, part 1 of the by-laws:
… any authorised person may, if he or she has reason to believe that a violation of traffic by-laws referred to in the Schedule has been committed— (a) immobilise or cause such vehicle to be immobilised by way of a wheel clamp; and (b) if the motor vehicle has not been clamped and the relevant charges incidental thereto paid, subsequently remove and tow away the motor vehicle to a secure compound after a period of at least two hours has elapsed: Provided that a motor vehicle shall be clamped simultaneously with the issuance of a traffic ticket for the violation of the by-laws; and (c) in the case of either a co-operating or first-time offender, an authorised person may escort the offender to a secure compound with the owner or driver of the offending vehicle driving. An authorised person, provided is licensed according to the Road Traffic Act (Chapter 13:11), may drive an impounded vehicle to the storage compound at a cost equivalent to that of tow fees.
Vehicle clamping in Zimbabwe is contentious and residents have taken local authorities to court over the issue.
In May 2022, the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) argued that TTI was unnecessarily clamping cars, instilling fear in motorists.
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