HARARE mayor Herbert Gomba has said there is
nothing wrong with City Parking being given a parking management tender by
Bulawayo City Council (BCC), as the two local authorities have a long working
relationship.
Bulawayo councillors are divided over who takes control of
the parking management system in the city, among other tender and procurement
processes, a development that has also seen government taking an
interest in the matter and launching a probe into BCC’s operations.
Reports indicate that one of the companies linked to the
parking management system, Harare City Council’s Easypark (City Parking) has
made an unsolicited bid for a parking management tender.
Recent reports accused Easypark of allegedly pampering some
Bulawayo councillors in a five-star hotel junket and other goodies in order to
influence the tendering process.
“Residents and pressure groups must know that Harare and
Bulawayo have had a long history of working together for the benefit of the two
sister cities. History is full of occasions where councillors of both cities
have travelled and learned from each other. More recently, Harare councillors
from the environmental management committee went to learn about how waste was
being managed in Bulawayo, the same with some councillors from that side,”
Gomba said.
“It’s unfortunate that some would want to take this as an
opportunity to score political points, yet these can sometimes be simple
opportunities to transfer knowledge. Bulawayo to us is a city in Zimbabwe, which has
city fathers who must interact with others in Harare. We also want our
councillors and council to create synergies within Zimbabwe as we see no reason why we
must promote external interactions at the expense of our internal programmes.”
The parking management services tender in Bulawayo was
cancelled in 2012 by the BCC despite having granted it to Megalithic Marketing
Private Limited. The BCC cited a “shambolic tendering” process in cancelling
the tender.
This resulted in a long court battle, with the company
contesting council’s decision to cancel the tender.
In April last year, BCC shortlisted Ducretion Logistics Pvt
(Ltd) and Lauvax Trading Pvt (Ltd), trading as Propark – for consideration to
manage the city’s parking system, but the deal was never finalised. Newsday
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