Cape Argus (Cape Town)
Francis Hweshe
3 July 2009
Hundreds of irate Cape Town city parking marshals downed their meters, branding their new employer, Street Parking Solutions, as "disorganised and criminal".
The marshals, who started working for the company only on Wednesday, said that they wanted their previous employer, Numque 2CC, back.
Gathered on the corner of Long and Castle streets, they shouted and booed at a company official trying to reassure them that their grievances would be addressed, and urging them to return to work.
The official, whom the marshals identified only as their "manager Gareth", declined to speak to the Cape Argus.
The marshals were demanding the return of their "old meters", rather than the new "toy meters" they have been issued.
Complaining that they were now charging R4.10 for half an hour of parking, they said "customers think we are robbing them" because the meters did not accept city parking cards.
They claimed that the company was not "giving us change for the customers, yet they demand that they pay with cash only".
They further alleged that some of them were being forced to work with receipt books and not meters, while others worked with meters only and no receipt books.
"These meters are like toys," said one of the protesters, alleging that they only showed the time a customer parked but not the amount they had to pay.
The City of Cape Town, who contracted the company, has denied the meters weren't working properly.
Dave Lowry, the city's head of transport programme management, said the meters had been tested and fully complied with parking requirements.
However, he conceded that the parking cards had been temporarily suspended because of a court interdict regarding parking fees.
One protester alleged that the company was also taking their tips off them.
"They said we won't get tips because we get wages. We have not heard of that before," he said.
Lowry however confirmed that the marshals had the right to keep tips, adding that he was set to meet the marshals' representatives to discuss their grievances.
"Everything should be back on track tomorrow (today)," he said, asking for motorists to be patient.
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