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PAKANI: THE
PERFECT SOLUTION TO A LONG TIME CRISIS
Pakani Operations Manager-Muzi Dlamini
Although
having started operations hardly a year ago, Intellipark L.M,
popularly known as PAKANI, has suddenly become the buzzword in
Manzini.
Whether the
operation has gained popularity for the wrong or right reasons
is no subject for discussion in this piece.
What we are
certain about is that many a people still do not comprehend
how it came about and what it is here for.
For that
reason, the editor sat with the company’s Operations Manager
Muzi Dlamini and fired a few questions which we believe might
help clear the mist about the operation.
Dlamini tells
us that PAKANI, an outsourced operation by the Municipal
Council of Manzini, was initially scheduled for commencement
on October 20th 2006 but due to the fact that then
it was not gazetted everything had to be put on halt.
He says it
actually took a year for the gazette to be finalized and
published hence the operation ended up beginning on December
17th 2007.
But what is
the rationale behind it?
Dlamini tells
us that this is actually a product of the Municipal Council of
Manzini’s long time dream to make sure parking is always
available in Manzini, heavily congested as it were.
“Intellipark
L.M, a company registered in Swaziland, won the tender to run
the operation especially because of its vast experience in
this field. Our mother company engaged experts from overseas
to conduct preliminary studies for the project,” says the
manager.
He says the
study uncovered that Manzini, albeit heavily jam-packed with
traffic, has got ample parking space - but it was being
abused.
“The experts
discovered that people park their vehicles on the streets for
at least eight hours while they are at work, giving no room
for other motorists to use the same bay. It was also
discovered that people working in other towns or cities parked
their cars in Manzini early in the morning and proceeded by
public transport to their places of work only to return for
them after working hours,” adds Dlamini.
He says it
was seen that parking space could be availed if the existing
long-term parking could be discouraged and that on-street
parking was the only possible solution.
“We could
have gone for parking metres but considered the capital
investment aspect that goes with it against the prevailing
unfriendly economic conditions in the country. Parking metres
require a huge capital investment whose return would have been
born by the end consumer, in this case the motorist. Again,
had we used parking metres the levy would have been higher to
ascertain that the company realizes some return on its
investment. Despite this glaring desperate need for parking
space in Manzini I don’t think people would have consented to
pay more than what they are paying now. Another problem with
parking metres is that they do not provide the flexibility of
parking in different bays using the same ticket as long as one
is still within the purchased time. That is why we opted for
the Pay-To-Display (ticketing) system,” he states.
As naturally
expected, when the operation kicked off it was met with a
certain degree of resistance from motorists.
Dlamini says
the reasons could have been that people did not appreciate
that the operation had been introduced for their benefit.
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