A new trial parking system was recently implemented in the Stellenbosch central business district (CBD) following the expiration of Stellenbosch Municipality’s contract with the previous service provider.
The contract with the previous service provider, Street Parking Solutions (SPS), expired on 30 September, according to Stuart Grobbelaar, spokesperson for the municipality.
“The municipality is now managing public parking in the Stellenbosch CBD area itself, for the time being,” said Grobbelaar in email correspondence with MatieMedia. A R440 000 grant from the Cape Winelands District for CBD safety will be used to kickstart this project, according to mayoral council meeting minutes from 15 September.
However, in July SPS allegedly “enquired with the municipality several times” about an extension of its contract beyond September, due to the impact that the various stages of the Covid-19 lockdown had on their attendants’ work time, according to Zunade Loghdey, owner of SPS. “Stellenbosch municipality never responded,” said Loghdey.
According to Grobbelaar, the municipality’s contract with SPS was a “normal fixed-term contract […] that simply expired”.
The new system
The municipality’s system makes use of 61 temporary law enforcement officers who will assist parking attendants with collecting payments from motorists. Additionally, the officers can “issue traffic fines for vehicles not paying parking fees”, according to the mayoral council meeting minutes.
“It doesn’t make sense. SPS had the technology and means to run an effective system. Now [the municipality] is wasting money which could have been used for essential services,” claimed Loghdey.
Loghdey told MatieMedia that the municipality’s new system will become a “massive problem” for Stellenbosch because it, he claimed, “is not equipped to run an efficient system due to lack of resources”.
“Continuous monitoring, evaluation, and adjustments [of the parking system] are taking place where needed, whilst a decision will be made on the sustainability and the way forward by the municipality,” Grobbelaar told MatieMedia.
Open for comment
Following the municipal council meeting in July, the public was able to comment on whether the municipality should continue using SPS as a service provider, or implement a new parking system, according to Loghdey.
While there were no objections to continuing to use SPS, the contract was not extended, claimed Loghdey.
Residential concerns
However, some local residents have questioned the efficiency of the current parking system. “[I]t is fundamentally flawed,” claimed Wynand Viljoen, a Stellenbosch local.
If parking attendants cannot be found and a person leaves without paying their fee, they are issued a traffic fine, according to Viljoen.
However, “[w]hen you want to leave, you have to look for the parking attendants”, claimed Viljoen.
Many Stellenbosch residents are unhappy with the expense of parking in town, said Anna-Mareé Uys, a local business owner, in written correspondence with MatieMedia.
According to Grobbelaar, “[t]he tariffs are exactly the same as before”. However, some residents raised concerns about having to pay a fee of up to R8 for less than 30 minutes of parking in a recent Facebook post.
“Stellenbosch Municipality, this is super ridiculous. R8.00 parking fee for four minutes of parking,” wrote Leon Poole, a Stellenbosch resident, in the Facebook post, which was published on a public community group.
The incident referred to in the post took place in front of the Hussar Grill in Plein Street, according to Poole. “I was prepared to pay for my parking but was shocked when the guard told me it’s R8 [for] 0-1 hour of parking,” he said in written correspondence with MatieMedia.
Poole’s post has since received over 120 comments from local residents with similar experiences.
The first 30 minutes of off-street parking are free, after which it costs R8 an hour, according to Grobbelaar. “For on-street parking, the first 30 minutes costs R4,” he said.
“[Parking] in Stellenbosch has been a problem for so many years,” said Uys. “I feel sorry for visitors coming into Stellenbosch.”
Grobbelaar did not respond to queries from MatieMedia regarding residents’ complaints about the new parking system, nor the claims made by Loghdey. The municipality declined to “become involved in a public to and throw [sic] with a previous service provider”, said Grobbelaar.
