While Servest, the company appointed to manage the city’s parking, has failed to account for the income generated by charging for parking, the municipality says they will not cancel their contract as it expires on January 3 next year.
Municipal spokesperson Malesela Maubane confirmed this, saying that a report would be presented to the city council in this regard.
This was in reaction to DA councillor Kenny Makgabo’s allegations that the municipality was on the verge of terminating the contract.
Makgabo said Easi Hold (Servest) was appointed by the municipality in 2012 to maximise the collection of revenue for the use of on–street parking bays.
However, since the appointment, the service provider had failed to submit the financial reports as specified in the service level agreement.
“The service provider has also failed to pay the municipality the revenue they have generated since their appointment,” he alleged.
According to Makgabo the municipality had already paid the service provider more than R2 million but there were no measures in place to collect the revenue from the service provider.
Maubane said the allegation that the municipality had paid the service provider R2 million was not accurate, as the service provider was appointed in terms of supply chain management processes and there was no requisite for the municipality to pay the service provider any money.
“It was a material term of the service level agreement that the parties agreed on a profit-sharing model in terms of which the service provider would pay over 20% of the monthly profit to the municipality,” he said.
He confirmed that the service provider had failed to submit detailed monthly financial statements to the municipality and a report was being generated to the city council to apprise them or the situation, with the anticipation that the council decided on the appropriate course of action to be taken.
Speaking on behalf of Servest, head of operations in South Africa, Paul van Rooyen, said their contract with the municipality specifically precluded them from making any press statements.
Van Rooyen further said he could, however, confirm that at no point had Servest received any money, let alone R2 million, from the municipality.
