City to sell unclaimed towed vehicles

News
VEHICLES clamped and towed away by the council for violating traffic regulations in Bulawayo will now be sold if owners do not settle outstanding penalties within a month.
Ignatius Chombo
Ignatius Chombo

VEHICLES clamped and towed away by the council for violating traffic regulations in Bulawayo will now be sold if owners do not settle outstanding penalties within a month.

BY NQOBANI NDLOVU

The Bulawayo City Council said Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo had approved by-laws authorising the local authority to penalise traffic offenders in several ways and by even selling impounded vehicles.

By-laws are contained in Statutory Instrument 63 of 2015 (Bulawayo City Council Clamping and Tow Away) by-laws 2015, under the Urban Councils Act.

Traffic offences include for example, failure to have a pre-paid parking disc which is set at $36,35 (for three months), $20 (30 minutes zone booklet), $17 (one-hour zone booklet) and $13 (two-hour zone booklet).

Nesisa Mpofu, the council’s public relations officer, said clamped vehicles would be towed away to the council compound after the two-hour deadline, after being kept at the compound for a month and sold if the owner does not settle the penalty, including towing and storage charges.

“5(1) Council shall publish in any newspaper circulating within the council area a list of vehicles immobilised and advise owners to claim the vehicles within a period of 30 days. (2) Council shall sell by public auction any vehicle that remains unclaimed 30 days after a notice has been published,” Mpofu said in a statement.

“4(4) A motor vehicle removed to a secure compound shall be released upon payment by the owner of such motor vehicle of the prescribed fine and wheel clamping, tow away and storage charges specified in the schedule.”

Mpofu urged motorists and the public to observe by-laws or be penalised.

For boarding a vehicle at an undesignated zone, a passenger will be fined $5, throwing litter out of a vehicle $5, parking vehicle without a pre-paid parking disk $10 while taxi cabs carrying more than three passengers at the back seat will be fined $5 per extra passenger.