By Tendai Makaripe
HARARE — City Parking’s apology for clamping a vehicle carrying a child who needed urgent treatment has drawn angry complaints from Facebook users and calls for reform.
Florence Maridzo Chikwenengwe, the child’s mother, accused an attendant of clamping her vehicle after refusing an EcoCash payment despite her warning that the child was struggling to breathe, according to a Facebook post by journalist Hopewell Chin’ono.
Chikwenengwe said she parked in Harare about 3:50 p.m. Thursday and offered to pay the US$1 fee through EcoCash because she had no cash.
She said the child needed medication through a nebuliser, but the attendant allegedly clamped the vehicle and responded, “That’s none of my business.”
After paying the US$35 clamp-release fee, Chikwenengwe rushed the child to Parktown Hospital, where an anonymous donor paid the US$600 treatment bill, Chin’ono said.
“City Parking deeply regrets the distressing incident that occurred involving a mother and her child who required urgent medical attention,” the company said.
The company launched an investigation, ordered staff training and promised to review its clamping procedures.
City Parking said management released the vehicle, but it did not explain whether that happened before or after Chikwenengwe paid the fee.
Chin’ono said city officials later offered to reimburse her.
Some commenters portrayed the incident as a longstanding problem rather than an isolated failure.
“You guys are useless,” Pablo Tinashe wrote.
“How many times have we told you that your marshals mistreat people? Now that something bad has happened, you want to pretend to be caring?”
Others supported that criticism with accounts of their own encounters.
“I was almost nine months pregnant and stopped at a bank to collect money for hospital bills after experiencing unexpected pain,” Orpatience Muringai Chaponda wrote in a comment.
“My car was clamped, and they ignored my explanation that I had an emergency,” she added.
The discussion also shifted from individual conduct to management’s responsibility for staff training.
“Please ensure that your staff receive proper training and understand that they are not above the law,” Tawanda Kampira wrote.
“People’s safety and dignity should always come before money.”
City Parking acknowledged the anger but did not respond individually to the allegations.
“We are equally disappointed, and we understand your frustration,” it wrote.
“The matter is being treated with the seriousness that it deserves.”
Chin’ono called the refund “simply not anywhere near enough” and urged Mayor Jacob Mafume and city spokesperson Stan Gama to support the child and reform City Parking.
