Mulenda called for help over her radio, and bystanders held the man until police arrived. She was booked off work for two weeks before returning to her job. The man was later identified as Joseph Masirika, a taxi driver.
It was not the first time Mulenda had been assaulted while doing her job. The previous year, she had been attacked by another motorist after he refused to pay for parking. She suffered a dislocated shoulder and was again forced to take time off work while recovering.
Zunade Loghdey is the founder and CEO of Street Parking Solutions in Cape Town, which employs the marshals.
He says: "We are contracted by the City of Cape Town to administer parking management according to the Parking By-law and Traffic By-law," he says. "We employ in excess of 300 parking marshals. The public are split between compliant and non-compliant motorists. We have mechanisms approved by the City of Cape Town for non-compliant scofflaw motorists.
"Things are improving slowly; however, many parking marshals face verbal violence from rude and impatient motorists. I believe many motorists are ignorant of their obligations to the City of Cape Town by-law for parking. Municipal by-law compliance will be most important going forward for the rapid urbanisation phenomenon challenges faced by cities globally and parking management is a vital cornerstone of this issue."