20 Nov 2014

Gaborone City Council will start impounding vehicles or 
properties left by their owners on the city’s road reserves.

The city 
attorney, Mr Sono Seisa said in an interview that people should be aware that
 all roads in the city were owned by the council and therefore abandoning 
vehicles on the road reserve was an offence and owners would be charged a fee if 
they wanted to collect them from the city council’s premises after after being impounded.

Mr Seisa 
said the council was aware that some streets were fully packed with abandoned 
vehicles and said they had impounded some vehicles in the past and even this
time around they could have long done the same but it was delayed by the tender
 processes for the towing companies.

He said the
awarding of tenders to towing companies is nearing completion and that soon 
they will be issuing court orders to owners and start impounding those vehicles
 found in public places. He cited some streets in Broadhurst industrial, Haile 
Selassie Road and Gaborone West industrial.

Mr Seisa
 said owners would be required to pay the towing fee which was P783 in the last 
operation and the fee might change depending on the new tender arrangement and
 they would also be required to pay the penalty fee of P500 and storage charge.

He said the
exercise would be extended to residential roads where they had discovered that
some trucks and excavators had been long parked by the roads reserve and said
this is not allowed at all costs and said the operation would also target those
who put their sign boards besides the roads without any license to do that. ENDS