Physical attacks part of job
THE DIFFICULT working conditions of the CBD’s parking marshals came to light after an assault on one was caught on camera.
In July, Elizabeth Mulenda, who works for Street Parking Solutions, spoke to the media after being clouted by a motorist outside the Cape Town High Court. The assault was caught on video.
A motorist, identified as taxi driver Joseph Masirika, was arrested and has appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court. He has not yet entered a plea.
The matter had been postponed until October 7, a clerk of the court told the Cape Argus yesterday.
Mulenda said she would like to see her alleged attacker convicted.
“A simple apology is not enough because what he did to me was very violent and unacceptable,” she said yesterday.
Mulenda was booked off work for about two weeks.
SPS has since equipped some of its staff members with cameras to record their interactions with motorists.
SPS owner Zunade Loghdey told the Cape Argus in July that his staff were regularly confronted by aggressive motorists. In one instance a motorist pulled a gun on a parking marshal.
The cameras are Loghdey’s attempt at curbing the harassment, because they are visible and come with a warning notice that reads: “Recording in progress”.
Mulenda said she was also assaulted last year by a motorist who refused to pay her for parking. “He dislocated my shoulder and I could not work for two weeks.”
Brett Herron, mayoral committee member for transport, said he had “previously expressed outrage at the way in which some motorists treat parking marshals, who are merely doing their jobs and performing an important function on behalf of the city”. Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s human capital portfolio committee, said the working conditions at Street Parking Solutions had been discussed on various occasions at executive meetings at the chamber.
“If these allegations are true, many of them would amount to gross contraventions of the country’s labour legislation.”
He said it was up to the City of Cape Town, which had awarded the company the contract to manage the CBD’s paid parking system, to ensure the company did not break the law.
“Failing that, the contract should be cancelled.”
City spokesman Simon Maytham originally said the dispute was an ongoing internal affair between the company and its employees.
The city had thus refrained from commenting on it in the past.
In response, Bagraim said the city could not expect workers – many of whom were nonunionised, and some of whom were foreign and lacked legal knowledge and financial resources – to fight for legal conditions of employment without help. BRETT Herron, mayco member for transport, said the city set parking tariffs when working out its annual budget.
The tariff in the CBD is R11 for an hour, and is lower in suburban business districts.
The city rents the parking bays out to service providers at a fixed rate. Whatever the service provider makes, over and above the rental, is kept as profit.
Herron said it would take time to find how much the city earned through renting the bays, but it amounted to a few hundred thousand rand a month.
Brett Herron, mayoral committee member for transport, said the grievances raised by the marshals should be dealt with in terms of the contract of employment with Street Parking Solutions.
The city had once, upon receiving compaints from Street Parking Solutions staff, asked the labour department to investigate whether the company’s employment contracts and practices were lawful, and “the department confirmed that they were”.
“Our contract with the service provider requires that they comply with all national legislation.”
However, following yesterday’s complaints, the city would request “evidence” from SPS that its practices complied with “all employment legislation”.
The contracts for on-street parking management would go out for tender in the near future.
“We are investigating how we can improve on the current model, including the conditions under which the parking marshals operate, in the future contracts,” said Herron.