Parking meter company short-changed

EVERYONE now seems to be complaining that they have been short-changed by the Hibiscus Coast’s on-off-on parking meter debacle.

Last week, the Herald reported that the municipality deemed the service provider, Itramas Corporation Africa, to be in ‘breach of contract’ because it had still not extended the pay-to-park plan anywhere outside of Port Shepstone, as was promised.

HCM spokesman Nomusa Zulu said they were now ‘reviewing their options’.

Whether most ratepayers and business people in the main CBDs wanted this in the first place is still debatable, but the municipality thought it a good idea at the time to alleviate congestion (and also to add to its coffers, no doubt).

Some might now suggest that they: “Love it when a ‘good’ plan doesn’t come together.”

Sabeer Sheik Ibrahim, CEO of Itramas, added his five cents to the meter mire this week.

He explained that the contract between the municipality and his company was quite clear on exactly who should pay for parking.

And he said that it was rather the municipality who was in breach of contract as councillors and other HCM staff had been issued with stickers that allowed them to park anywhere in Port Shepstone for free.

The municipality still denies this and says the free parking is only applicable in streets near the municipal buildings.

Not so, said Mr Ibrahim. “According to the instructions we received from the head of department of community services and the superintendent of law enforcement, all HCM and Ugu municipal employees, provincial government departments such as health, finance, education and councillors, were to be exempt from paying to park,” he said.

He said they had tried to negotiate with the municipality and said they could not continue to roll out the systems until the dispute was settled.

“The tender documents and our contract is clear that there is no exemption for parking. Following negotiations with the HCM, we had agreed that parking for councillors around the HCM offices would be free during council meetings and events,” he added.

“We agree that litigation is not the way forward, but if HCM does not agree to meet with us, then we have no other option left, but to weigh our legal options,” he said.

“But what we want to make clear is that we are not in breach of contract. It is rather others who have blocked the contract from performing as intended by instructing HCM staff and others not to pay for parking and by issuing illegal parking discs to staff,” he concluded