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Stanger Weekly
KZN LOCAL NEWS
20 February 2019
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Two killed in mob justice attack [3]
PHOTO: JYOTHI LALDAS
Members of the DA gathered outside the KwaDukuza Municipality to address the issue of paid parking.
Fierce opposition to paid parking JYOTHI LALDAS >>jyothi.laldas@media24.com
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HE Democratic Alliance (DA) in KwaZulu-Natal has taken a stance of opposition against what they claim is the “ludicrous re-introduction of paid parking by the KwaDukuza Municipality in Ballito, Salt Rock and Stanger”. The municipality recently announced its intention to re-introduce the paid parking system — following an overhaul of the bylaws — which when initially rolled out late in 2017 was not well received by the majority of the community. People were charged R6 per hour to park in the bays in the CBD, which is being compared to paid parking in most metros where the cost is the same. Members of the DA, including member of Parliament and DA Team One KZN Spokesperson for Jobs and Opportunities Dean Macpherson, DA caucus leader Madhun Sing, Mandeni constituency leader Kathleen Naidoo, and executive council member Malcolm Hubneraddressed a gathering outside the KwaDukuza Municipality on Monday afternoon regarding their plan of action. Addressing the gathering, Macpherson said: “The outcry from businesses and ordinary citizens in opposition to this money-making racket has been loud and clear; they are opposed in totality to this move. Small and medium-sized businesses from retail to service-related industries are worried that paid parking in the towns will have devastating effects on their business and may lead to job losses and, in some cases, businesses closing.
“The DA has also heard from working and poor citizens that they simply cannot afford to pay for parking to do their grocery shopping and essential day-to-day activities.” He added that the paid parking system would cripple the business sector in the CBD as many people will opt to shop at the local malls where parking is free. He said the DA in KZN has announced actions in response to “this direct tax attack by KwaDukuza” which includes a petition against paid parking, driven by all DA councillors and activists, which will be handed to the mayor and a series of public meetings across the municipality to rally residents behind the opposition to paid parking. He added that the DA will oppose the matter in all council forums and will ultimately lead a march to the mayor’s office to hand over the petition and grievances to the municipality. “The Democratic Alliance in KZN will stand steadfast with residents in the collective opposition to this shortsighted and insensitive idea by the ANC led municipality and will not rest until they drop this additional tax on KwaDukuza residents altogether.” According to Sing, the DA also opposed the item in council in 2017 when it came about in the budget. “When we did the review after the implementation it came across that there were still a lot of challenges in terms of rolling out the programme in terms of the tariff being too high, the wages paid to the guards, etc. “ If you look around now, you will find barely any car guards when the initial idea was to get 60 off the ground. They
came around guns blazing but if you look around now you will see maybe one or two on the main street. Our view is that its a plan that has gone horribly wrong and as a municipality they should not spend more money to keep the paid parking going.” Sing added that when the public consultations and the amendment to the bylaws are done, it will go to council. “We will obviously oppose it and we must look at also influencing the ruling party to abolish or scrap the paid parking,” he said. Speaking to the Weekly, Naidoo said people come from Mandeni, Tugela, Newark and all the places in between to shop in KwaDukuza. “So this does not just affect the people living in the KwaDukuza Municipality but also those who come to Stanger from outside the town. I want to urge residents from these areas to sign the petition as well,” Naidoo ended. Responding to the DA, KwaDukuza Municipality media liaison officer SiphoMkhize said: “At this stage we will be waiting for the petition the DA said it will draft. “We wish to reaffirm our stance as an institution that the introduction of paid parking was, in our view, not a shoddy deal and we do believe that if the public really plays an active role in this public participation process that we have now opened up everyone can win from the scheme at the end of the day. “We are cognisant of the teething challenges that were there prior to this and we are working to ensure that should the system continue being implemented, with the current contract coming to an end soon, we will not see the same problems.
“We did talk to council about looking at various tariffs for various durations of parking and we are hoping that in our process for the 2019/2020 budget the public, even when the tariffs are proposed, will receive much joy from that.” He added that it is one area where they are able to create jobs. “If the system had worked according [to plan] we would have made in the region of a million rand a year which we [could have taken] and put it into simple basic service delivery things — we would have made some impact.” Mkhize encouraged the community to view the bylaws on the KwaDukuza Municipality website and join in the public participation process by making submissions on how
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THE DA will hold a public meeting on Monday, February 25 at the Stanger Manor Community Hall at 2pm. Residents, businesses, and all stakeholders and concerned groups are invited to attend and have their say regarding the DA’s call to scrap paid parking.
they think the system should work. According to Mkhize, despite the public participation phase being open and advertised in local newspapers, they have yet to receive any submissions from the community. “Go onto our website and [have your say]. When it comes back to council we make an informed decision based on these inputs. But people are not engaging with us now, which is the problem.” He said in order to comment on the process, the community can use any one of the various channels laid out on their website. Submissions can be dropped of at the municipality in writing or the municipality can be contacted at 032 437 5000 for more information.
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