Moroccans Protest Illegal Parking Fees as Social Media Campaign Against Car Guards Gains Momentum

#Boycott moul gilet, or even ضد مول جيلي أصفر#. It is through this hashtag that a campaign to boycott car guards has been launched on social networks. More than 88,000 Internet users are members of "Boycott moul gilet," the first Facebook group created as part of this campaign. Some members denounce the anarchy of the guards and the illegal practices that have become commonplace. These practices are: very high prices charged by some guards, for example in Dar Bouazza where the parking rate is around 20 DH, or on the Aïn Diab corniche (10 DH or more); aggression of some guards when the citizen refuses to pay the required amount; obligation to pay at each stop and the proliferation of fake guards. Many complaints have been filed on the Chikaya.ma and CasablancaCity.ma portals. All of which demonstrates that anger against car guards is accumulating.

What about the conditions for the exploitation of public spaces? "The management of parking is one of the prerogatives of the municipalities, according to law 78-00 on the communal charter and article 83 of organic law 113-14, relating to municipalities," confides to Médias24 a lawyer at the Casablanca bar. "The municipality creates and manages the public services and facilities necessary for the provision of local services in the following areas [...]: traffic, road traffic, public road signage and vehicle parking [...]," specifies this article.

To put an end to the anarchy on the public highway, "control must be done on a regular basis," he recommends. In Casablanca for example, the guards wear badges, which can easily be reproduced in Derb Ghalef. As a result, it is difficult to distinguish the guards authorized by the municipality from the fake guards.

"There are two ways to entrust the exploitation of these spaces, the first of which is leasing. The municipality thus launches calls for tenders to rent these spaces. The market can be entrusted to legal entities as well as to individuals. It is the best bid that is retained. [...] The second way is a more efficient management model, within the framework of delegated management, and approaches a public-private partnership. It is thus a matter of setting up a dedicated company. [...]," explains for his part Lahcen Elomrani, first deputy mayor of the city of Rabat.

"Any person who does not have an official authorization from the municipality has no right to demand money from motorists," firmly states the president of the Ain Chock district, also vice-president of the Casablanca City Council, adding that checks are carried out by the administrative police and that sanctions are applicable in case of non-compliance with the terms of the specifications for the operation of these spaces.