Parking marshals to return to Cape Town in November

Free parking on the streets of Cape Town is over. The City of Cape Town announced that the return of parking marshals to the CBD, Sea Point, Claremont, Newlands and Bellville is imminent. Parking management was temporarily suspended when the pandemic took hold last year and it has also hampered the city’s efforts to restart the service.

PARKING MARSHALS RETURN TO CAPE TOWN

Parking marshals will return to Sea Point on Tuesday, 2 November. By the end of that month, they should be present in the CBD, Claremont and Newlands, if everything goes to plan. Meanwhile, parking management in Bellville is expected to resume by March 2022.

“We want to inform motorists ahead of time that they will be charged for on-street parking again, given that the management of parking was temporarily suspended since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic last year,” said Rob Quintas, the City’s MayCo Member for Transport.

Quintas said paid on-street parking bays helps to ensure that there is a turnover of bays in popular areas and where people do bays.

“This will benefit business owners because their clients need parking, and those who are looking for parking will also benefit because parking bays will not be hogged for hours on end by the same person,” said Quintas.

The City of Cape Town said its new parking contract will provide more than 200 much-needed jobs.

ON-STREET PARKING FEES

The applicable parking tariffs are as follows:

• Sea Point, CBD, Claremont: R4,80 per 15 minutes
• Bellville and Newlands: R3,40 per 15 minutes

Payment methods:

• Cash
• Snapscan
• Debit card
• Credit card

Motorists need to pay for parking upfront, in order to prevent a situation where people return to their vehicle and drive off without paying.

The City is yet to finalise its clamping protocol. However, fines for parking violations will range between R300 and R1000 and repeat offenders will have their wheels clamped, said the City.

Motorists who need to park near the CBD for extended periods of time are advised to use the long-stay parking bays on the fringes of the business district.

The City will implement long-stay parking in the following streets:

• Jan Smuts Street
• Sir Lowry Road between Tennant and Darling Streets
• DF Malan Street
• Buitengracht

The applicable tariffs along these streets will be as follows:

• For less than 4,5 hours: R30
• Between 4,5 and 9 hours: R50

JOBS CREATED

Quintas said the parking contract will create more than 200 jobs that are “much needed in these difficult times.”

“Also, the purpose of managing parking is to stimulate economic activity and to provide access to businesses who need to create jobs. This is extremely important, in particular now that the City is gearing for economic recovery in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the MayCo Member.