The Parking 'Sayess' Will Soon Need a Government License

Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawi has approved a new law (No. 150 of 2020) to help regulate the chaos that haunts Cairo’s streets - at least, when it comes to parking. The new set of laws mostly tackle informal activities that have become normalised while parking in Cairo. Most interestingly, the law addresses ‘sayes’ (the guy that helps you park in exchange for all your change), who will now have to go get a license to do his thing or face six months of jail time.

The other new laws will allot places and times where cars may be parked in the street so that they don’t obstruct traffic, along with set parking fees. Failure to adhere to these allotted places, times and fees will result in a fine. If you are a business owner, you’ll be able to rent spots for your employees. If you park in the same spot on the street all the time, you can pay rent for that spot at the tune of EGP300 a month.

Does this mean we can say goodbye to cars parked in second rows? One can only hope.