By Flata Kavinga
The City of Kwekwe is planning to introduce sensors on parking bays to curb revenue losses associated with manual monitoring, Finance Director Rejoice Maweni-Dandira has revealed.
Maweni-Dandira made the remarks while responding to a question from local businessman Martin Potsekai during the city’s 2025 budget review and 2026 budget consultation meeting held with the business community recently.
Potsekai had expressed concern over whether the local authority was receiving meaningful revenue from the paid parking initiative, despite its success in reducing congestion in the central business district.
“We have seen a big improvement in terms of congestion in the parking use, but we are concerned if council is receiving meaningful revenue out of the exercise,” Potsekai said.
In response, Maweni-Dandira acknowledged that while the council had registered modest surpluses from the programme, there was still room for improvement.
“Currently, or rather in the last three months, we’ve been having surpluses of between US$2,500 and US$3,000 per month. It’s not much, but we see that we can actually improve,” she said.
She explained that the city was still relying on manual monitoring, which limited efficiency and accountability, but that steps were being taken toward automation.
“Yes, there is a system where we can check how much each cashier has raised by a particular time, maybe up to 4pm or 2pm. But we are engaging the supplier to introduce sensors that can detect vehicles in parking bays. This will make supervision easier and more accurate,” Maweni-Dandira said.
She added that the introduction of sensors would help the council maximise revenue collection through real-time monitoring and enhanced transparency.
“With automation, we are confident we will collect more revenue from the system,” she said.
The paid parking system was introduced by Kwekwe City Council to decongest the city centre and boost local revenue generation, but concerns have been raised over its operational efficiency and financial returns.
