Letters

Lotto ticket

I received a traffic fine yesterday while parked in a red bay in front of the Anatomy Building on the health sciences campus, where I work. I attended a meeting in Bremner Building at 10h00 and when I arrived back on the health sciences campus at 12 noon, the parking area for yellow bays was, once again, chaotic. Sometimes when I arrive at work in the morning, the parking area is already almost full.

If you have to vacate your bay to attend a meeting, you have no chance of finding parking again. I find it unacceptable that the traffic office issues parking disks knowing full well that there are insufficient parking bays to meet the demand. Furthermore, it is just a matter of time before there is a serious accident on the hockey field parking area. People have to park wherever they can find a spot and it is sometimes difficult to navigate your way between the cars. Regarding the Bremner Building parking area, the bays are far too narrow and one sometimes has to get into the driver's seat via the passenger door because the space between the cars is insufficient.

I do understand that parking on campus is an ongoing problem but find it unacceptable that the traffic office, who are no doubt well aware of the problem, continue to hand out parking tickets to those parking in the wrong bays because there are no other bays available.

The Bremner Building parking bays are narrower than the norm and we are looking at rectifying this. This will mean losing a few bays but there is a new parking area planned on the old netball courts. Regarding the medical campus, we are doing a survey of how many red, yellow, and student bays there are with a view to reconfiguring these to suit demand. We will also liaise with Student Housing at GSH regarding the under-utilised parking at Clarinus. Please note that as the parking policy states, a disc does not guarantee parking. It gives the vehicle driver the right to seek parking on campus.
Bruce Jansen, acting traffic and transport manager

The prices of food on Upper Campus are going up far too much. A small plate of food in Leslie now costs R25! This is not possible. I don't know how students can afford that! Is there anyone regulating these prices?

What is the SRC doing about this? Does no one at UCT see that the prices are high? Does anyone care about this issue? How can students be made more aware of these issues? Why do the students accept these prices? Is it that they don't like to complain (or are too rich) or they don't know where to turn? Or maybe people complain but the complaints are not taken into account. These are some questions that I would like to have answered.

Roshan Bhurtha

UCT does not play any role whatsoever in the determination of food prices on campus, other than to ensure that contractors are aware that they are dealing with a predominantly student market and they should take this into account in their pricing structures. It is up to individual contractors to set their own prices, but they must at the same time accept that they stand a chance of facing student boycotts of their products if they are thought to be ripping off their customers. The university will naturally vigorously follow up on any accusations of collusion between vendors. I seem to recall that the Students' Representative Council met with vendors last year and that prices were indeed reviewed, but must add that continual revision may not necessarily bring prices down.

Duke Metcalf, Properties & Services