Sonpark Centre affected by hospital parking ban
Rob Ferreira Hospital visitors who park their vehicles at Sonpark Centre are not only trespassing, but are also affecting business for tenants of the property.
The national Department of Health took the decision to ban patients from parking on the premises of all public hospitals in December.
This has left hospital visitors and patients with no other choice than to park their vehicles on available properties.
However, by law, they are trespassing on these properties.
Kobus Jacobs, the manager of Sonpark Centre, told Lowvelder that he is unhappy with visitors from the hospital parking on their property.
“We are fulfilling the parking requirements law from the town council that states that visitors of organisations must park on an organisation’s property. They are trespassing, and this is not acceptable,” he explained.
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Jacobs added that a shopper spent minimal time in a parking bay, an average of 10 minutes.
However, a visitor to the hospital uses a parking bay for an average of an hour and thirty minutes.
The centre thus loses approximately nine customers in that time frame.
He has written a letter to the head of the provincial Department of Health, Dr Savera Mohangi, and the municipal council asking that the hospital fulfill its parking requirements, because, “my tenants are complaining and this is affecting business”.
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“Preventing people from parking on the hospital premises will not stop crime if thorough searches are not done at the entrance. Besides, the walls built around the hospital are spacious enough to pass a weapon through,” he added.
Dumisani Malamule, spokesperson for the department, said they were looking into the matter.
“We have received the concerns from the public. We will announce the next course of action once we have decided how the matter will be handled,” he said.
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