PARKING FIRM SACKS 200 WORKERS OVER CLAMPING

TENDY Three Investments (TTI), Bulawayo’s traffic management company, has sacked over 200 employees for clamping motorists indiscriminately and violating company policies. The company has faced complaints from motorists who said they were harassed by TTI employees and clamped for outstanding tickets of as little as US$5.

TTI managing director Lizwe Mabuza said his company has zero tolerance for non-compliance to procedure by its employees and has invested a lot in customer handling procedures. He said every employee knows what constitutes an offence and what does not.

“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,” said Mabuza.

He added that they are not trigger happy at firing their employees but look at the merits and demerits of each complaint brought by customers, as they are aware that some of the complaints are out of malice by people who would have committed an offence.

“We get a lot of complaints against our employees especially the enforcers, those who do the clamping, but not every complaint is genuine. It is natural that 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,” said Mabuza.

The complaints increased last month after the Government approved the City of Bulawayo’s 2023 clamping and tow away by-laws that 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. The approval was made through Statutory Instrument 220 of 2023 by the Local Government and Public Works Minister, Winston Chitando.

“It is hereby notified that the Minister of Local Government and Public Works, in terms of Section 229 of the Urban Councils Act (Chapter 29:15), has approved the following by-laws. These by-laws may be cited as the City of Bulawayo (Clamping and Tow-away) By-laws, 2023,” reads the Statutory Instrument.

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. Chronicle

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