Spare change or scare change?

Adelle Jansen

The University of Pretoria is one of the largest universities in South Africa and it has a student body consisting mostly of undergraduate students. With this in mind, one may wonder whether the university can accommodate all these students and their cars.

To start with, undergraduate students are not permitted to park on Hatfield’s main campus before 16:30, and although there are four allocated parking lots around the campus, the demand for parking continues to rise while the space remains limited. This has resulted in countless students parking in the surrounding areas outside the university. Along with the rush to find parking space, other issues have developed, like students receiving parking tickets and more commonly, the problem with car guards.

According to various students, who wish to remain anonymous, a few car guards surrounding UP have been intimidating students and demanding exorbitant fares. It has been reported that car guards have been preventing students from leaving a parking space without payment by blocking the vehicle. In addition to this, students who park alongside Lynnwood Road are frequently issued parking tickets from the Metro Police for “parking on a paved portion of a sidewalk”. A car guard explained that students should parallel park to avoid partially parking on the sidewalk. However, some car guards do not allow students to parallel park without them paying an initial fee and prefer for students to park perpendicularly as it optimises spaceallowing for more cars to park.

A general survey revealed that the car guards around the university are mostly selfemployed.They depend entirely on the tips that they receive from students to make a living and a large portion of their acquired money goes toward their transport fees. However, it