Harare to amend traffic by-laws

Harare to amend traffic by-laws
Published: 03 July 2018
Harare City Council (HCC) is seeking to amend its traffic by-laws to include sections on issuance of parking tickets and fines.

According to environmental management committee minutes, the by-law did not have any provision on offences and penalties making it difficult to charge offenders.

The new amendments would work together with the amended clamping and tow-away by-laws which increased the boundaries of the Central Business District (CBD).

"The committee noted that the major shortfalls of the current by-laws were that they were silent on the issue of parking tickets. It merely talked of parking bays and parking place without making mention of the fact that one needed to have a valid parking ticket before parking his or her vehicle," read part of the minutes.

The changes in the by-laws would also include widening the scope of parking space as unmarked bays were not regulated.

HCC acting chamber secretary Charles Kandemiiri said section 6 would
charge obstruction of a municipal employee from enforcing the by-law.

"Section 7 introduced a new provision on parking tickets whereby it would now be an offence to park a vehicle without displaying a valid parking ticket. Section 8, which is the offences and penalties section makes sure that for any violation of the by-laws, the perpetrator of such violations would be sanctioned," Kandemiiri said.

The clamping and tow-away by-laws would include issuance of traffic tickets and prolonged periods of impounding for vetting of vehicles.

When council had sought permission to use "reasonable force" which included spikes they were turned down by the Attorney General's (AG) office.

Among some of the major amendments in the clamping by-laws are the extensions of the CBD to areas covering Charter and Enterprise Roads, Tongogara Avenue and Rotten Row Street.

"Section 4 of the principal by-laws had been deleted and substituted with a provision taken from the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) by-laws that motor vehicles shall be clamped simultaneously with the issuance of a traffic ticket for violation of the Harare municipal by-laws.

"This would help the authorised person in enforcing the by-laws and dealing with traffic offenders who attempted to drive away in order to evade enforcement," read part of the amendments.
- dailynews
Tags: Harare,

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