Insist on a receipt when you park

POLOKWANE – Motorists who make use of the city’s metered parking have been alerted to ensure they receive a printed receipt for their payment from the parking marshals.

This follows after several residents reported that they had paid for parking, but received no receipt. One motorist, Kobus Visagie, said he was told by two parking marshals that the machines that printed the receipts were out of order. “They said receipts would not be used anymore as people just threw them away in any case,” Visagie said.

Another resident, Cindy Ramafalo, said she was approached by two parking marshals in Hans van Rensburg Street who demanded payment. “I paid them and only realised as I was leaving the area, that the women were not monitoring the area I had parked in, but had walked away,” she said.

The municipality currently has a contract with Servest Parking to manage the parking marshals. Servest Parking manager, Paul van Rooyen, said there were no receipt machines that had been reported out of order. He said motorists should insist on a printed receipt at all times.

Regarding parking marshals taking money in areas not assigned to them, he said the matter would be looked into. “We will consider issuing our parking marshals with name tags so that motorists will know who their parking marshal is,” he said.

He requested anyone with information about parking marshals involved in fraudulent activities to call Servest at 083 302 7949 or to report the matter to the offices of Servest Parking on the corner of Rabe and Hans van Rensburg Street.

Municipal spokesperson, Malesela Maubane, said Servest Parking’s contract would expire in January 2015, and there was a possibility that the municipality would take over the management or parking themselves.