The summer season brings with it many visitors who invade large and small towns of the Kingdom whose pleasant summering is well established. Except that, hair in the soup, their mobility already exasperated by the high cost of the kilometer traveled is subject to other disadvantages of a financial order, social management of public affairs…
Indeed, tourists driving and even residents of tourist towns are beset by another phenomenon, that of informality in the public space, and particularly that of parking. A very flourishing and lucrative informal with regard to the “yellow vests made in Morocco”, more and more numerous.
In the attractive seaside resorts and towns of the Coastal Kingdom and elsewhere, it goes from the big yellow coin to the greenback of our humble dirhams when it is sometimes much more. The icing on the cake, grumpy motorists are often victims of inappropriate, aggressive behavior or insults in the parking spaces by the guardians of the “temple”. On social networks, the hashtags “up to the car guards“ can rain as much as you want. Also, beware of the owner of the vehicle who refuses to “obey” the diktat of the car guards.
Often, these public spaces, municipal assets and local authorities are sold in exchange for a percentage of revenue collected annually. However, Law No. 57.19 relating to the real estate property regime of local authorities aims to define the rules applicable to these properties and guarantees them protection through a legal framework. This same law somewhere also prohibits the rental of driveways and public roads. But let’s go! This is not where the shoe pinches. The problem facing citizens is how the levy is imposed, especially in tourist towns, which experience a high influx of visitors.
Ahmed Bayoudfounding president of the association ” with consumers », member of the board of the Moroccan Federation for Consumer Protection (FMDC), considered that ” summer has come to remind us of a structural problem from which the Moroccan consumer suffers. It is linked to car safety, which faces a legal vacuum that needs to be reconsidered“. Bayoud also noted about “this legislative absence, which of its presence, would have consisted in defining the responsibility, the rights and the duties of each“.
The president of the association “Avec les consommateurs“ added that putting motorists and consumers directly in front of car guards, with all the physical danger that this sometimes entails, is a threat to the social peace of Moroccans“. Bayoud pointed out to MoroccoLatestNews that ” the poor framing of communication, in turn, has caused these guardians to always violate the law, because they do not respect the obligations of the written royalties “, explaining that ” some guards go so far as to force the driver to leave the car keys with them. This exposes private property to threat, danger and possibility of damage“.
Our interviewee further stated that “ some municipalities grant semi-licenses to these guards, without explaining the selection criteria, in exchange for a certain material percentage paid annually“. He pointed out that “this further explains the fragility from which the municipality suffers, since it is an unstructured profession and which is not subject to any clear operating logic“. Bayoud added that “this allows anyone to wear a yellow vest, to go to a specific space, and to extract illegal royalties that certain municipalities have granted him sometimes even with a license without regard to the danger that this person represents for security citizens and their property.
The FMDC member felt that “ the State must tackle this phenomenon, because it is constantly recurring and its problems with consumers are not limited to the big cities. When they know you are not a resident of the city, you become an excellent victim to be defrauded. The problem cannot be solved simply, and will continue unless the Ministry of the Interior and the local authorities intervene to set a price“.
Finally, Ahmed Bayoud concluded by saying that “the attempt to eradicate this phenomenon begins with legalization. These facts are humiliating for the citizens, and we note that many presidents of municipalities have not taken any action which greatly harms the landscape of tourist mobility“.