Since the commencement of eTolls on 3 December 2013, a viral hoax eTolls message has been doing the rounds via email, instant messaging and social media platforms; providing our numbers for people to contact.
JPSA wishes to distance itself from the misinformation contained in this hoax and to formally set the record straight by publishing this advisory. We have previously distanced ourselves from this hoax through the media, but it seems that this has had little or no effect in stemming the tide.
Hoax messages like this usually start off with elaborate textual content and as time progresses, they get embellished with adornments like legitimate organisations’ logos, etc. We hope that this will not happen with this hoax, but since we have no control over what these people do, the best we can do is to distance ourselves from it.
JPSA does not deny that we provided our VoIP number for people to call at the time – if they were stopped and told that they would be fined for not having an eTag. The reasons we did so were simple:
- We have previously been caught by people who made up stories in January 2012 (more info below)
- We know for a fact that nothing in the law would allow this type of behaviour by law enforcement authorities.
- The only traffic officials tasked with eToll enforcement is a contingent of traffic officers employed by the Gauteng Department of Community Safety seconded to SANRAL and they would not risk engaging in such practices.
- Corrupt traffic officers often make up offences in order to solicit bribes and it would be naïve to discount the possibility of eTags and eTolls being used to instill the appropriate fear in motorists so as to solicit bribes.
This viral hoax has effectively rendered our VoIP line unusable for incoming calls and we take a very dim view of it, for a number of reasons – not least of which is that we are very disappointed that its authors seem to think that it’s clever to make nonsense up and use us to legitimise their ramblings.
The hoax message
The host message has taken several forms, the latest of which reads as follows:
Hi friends ~ add the number below as one of your contacts on your
Cell Phone
SANRAL with assistance of the Metro Police are setting up Illegal
roadblocks, forcing people to register for E-tags.
For the ETOLL system to work SANRAL needs 78% compliance.
On Tuesday, of the +900 000 cases of vehicles passing through the
William Nicol plaza, only +1300 cars were E-tag registered.
Don’t be scared, they can’t force you to do anything.
If you do get pulled over in a roadblock as described above, please
call the “Justice Project of South Africa” on 0878090399.
Alert them of the roadblock and they will send some personnel to
shut the Roadblock down. If you can’t reach them, send an sms to
0812181368 detailing your problem.
Please forward to assist others as well.
see this website!
http://www.jp-sa.org/
Why this particular thing is a hoax
Before we go into this, we are not inviting the morons who authored this hoax to adjust their nonsense. There are more than sufficient factual reasons why the eTolls policy and practice is flawed without resorting to making things up, which is exactly what these bright sparks have done. We suggest they find better things to do with their time – like for example making the facts that we have published go viral.
The message starts off by saying “SANRAL with assistance of the Metro Police are setting up Illegal
roadblocks, forcing people to register for E-tags.”
- In the more than a month that our number has gone viral, we have not received a SINGLE report of such a roadblock occurring anywhere from any affected person.
- We have however received ONE report where a person claimed that this had happened to a friend of his’ wife two days prior to him reporting it.
It then goes on to say “ For the ETOLL system to work SANRAL needs 78% compliance”
- This is untrue. The compliance required is more in the order of a minimum of 95%.
- Even at 95% compliance, the National Prosecuting Authority will be left with a around 125,000 criminal prosecutions to institute and finalise each month.
- South Africa’s criminal justice system is simply incapable of handling such volumes.
It then goes on to say: “On Tuesday, of the +900 000 cases of vehicles passing through the
William Nicol plaza, only +1300 cars were E-tag registered.”
- Firstly, what day was “Tuesday”? This originally said “on the first day of eTolling”.
- There is no such “plaza” as the “William Nicol plaza”. eTolls uses gantries, not plazas.
- The gantry near William Nicol Drive on the N1 South is called the Tarentaal gantry and it is but one of 49 gantries currently in operation.
- Although we do not have access to SANRAL’s gantry records, it is totally implausible that “over 900,000 vehicles” would ever pass under the Tarentaal gantry on any given day since this would mean that at least 36% of reported 2.5 million vehicles stated in SANRAL’s research would have driven under that particular gantry.
- Anyone who claims that they know how many vehicles have eTags passing under gantries either has direct access to SANRAL’s systems, has an RFID scanner capable of detecting eTags, or is simply making things up. We are almost completely certain it is the latter.
It then goes further to say: “If you do get pulled over in a roadblock as described above, please
call the “Justice Project of South Africa” on 0878090399” and “Alert them of the roadblock and they will send some personnel to shut the Roadblock down. If you can’t reach them, send an sms to
0812181368 detailing your problem.”
- Justice Project South Africa is a registered non-profit company. It is NOT called “Justice Project ofSouth Africa”
- We have NEVER stated that we will “send some personnel to shut the Roadblock down“.
Things which add fuel to the hoax and rumours fire
To put it mildly, it is extremely unfortunate that TMT Services, acting in their capacity as the “Violations Processing Centre” (VPC) contracted by SANRAL has chosen to do what they normally do and engage in extortionist tactics in leveling threats against motorists they chase down to extract money from.
Recent emails from these thugs have stated such things as “Please note that the non-payment of toll is a criminal offence” and “Failure to make payment will result in you being identified as a non-payer and will be stopped by the Toll Road Enforcement Unit”.
Emails of this nature are both, unnecessary and deceitful since there is no provision in the law that will allow Toll Road Enforcement Units or anyone else to stop motorists on the basis of them having outstanding tolls. JPSA condemns the tactics used by TMT Services and SANRAL in this regard and we wonder why it is that they would seek to fuel rumours that they have previously denied.
Background to eTolls roadblock hoaxes
On Sunday 12 January 2012, JPSA was alerted to an alleged roadblock that had been set up by SANRAL, where people were being stopped and told that they had to buy an eTag or face a R3,000 fine.
These reports came from a variety of sources, including a woman who called into Talk Radio 702 who described how terrified she was by the several men who surrounded her car and threatened her with arrest.
JPSA decided to send an email to SANRAL CEO, Nazir Alli – complaining about this matter and as a result, an independent investigation was commissioned with Deloitte and Touche by SANRAL. After meeting with the investigative head and furnishing the information that had been supplied to us, JPSA contacted several people who had reported this matter and asked if they would be prepared to meet with the investigators. Without exception, all of these people refused to do so and we could not pressurise them to do so as this would have gone against our privacy policies.
The investigation revealed that the vehicles and crews at the Linksfield Road on-ramp to the N3 freeway were engaged in road painting. They did not stop any motorists, let alone threaten them with dire consequences for not having an eTag!
From then until the announcement of the commencement of eTolls, reports of this nature stopped.
In early December 2013 JPSA responded to a tweet wherein it was reported that two separate “reliable followers” if PigSpotter had sworn that they had been stopped by Metro Police and told that they were going to be fined for not having eTolls eTags in their cars.
Being cautious not to waste time, money and resources on a fruitless exercise, based on the say-so of people, JPSA responded by providing our voice over IP telephone number 087 809 0399 and saying “If you are stopped and threatened with a fine for not having an eTag, call us IMMEDIATELY so we can help.”
The net result of doing so was that our phone started ringing almost immediately and almost without exception, callers simply hung up after getting through. Some callers actually went to the trouble to ask us if this was a genuine number. These calls prevailed unabated until 04:00 the following morning, only to start up again at 05:30 and the calls kept on coming – at a rate of 200 calls an hour. By 10:00 that morning, we disabled ringing on the line and put an automatic and detailed voice message on the number.
So what should you do if you are in fact stopped and told you will be fined?
We do not wish to discount the possibility that motorists may be stopped and intimidated for anything that is eToll related. To do so would be naïve and totally unrealistic, however we also do not wish to be used as a vehicle to spread malicious and untrue rumours.
Just like any traffic stop, the possibility always exists that an officer may engage in corrupt or abusive practices and motorists must be mindful and prepared for such eventualities.
SANRAL has said that motorists faced with demands over eTags should call their call centre on 0800 SANRAL (726 725) to report such matters. We have not tested what would happen if one were to do this, however we are concerned that their call centre may not be equipped to handle such reports.
JPSA will respond to SMS messages to our SMS line if motorists are stopped and threatened, however we will not respond to messages asking for advices on eTolls as this costs us money and JPSA can ill afford to incur costs to provide you with advice to save you money.
Few people seem to know or care that JPSA is not a funded organisation yet there are some who seem to feel that it is our duty to respond to them. Our paying members will always get priority from us and we urge you to please help us sustain ourselves by joining JPSA. If you wish to become a member, then please do sohere.
What will we do if a GENUINE complaint comes in?
Contrary to what the hoax says, we will NOT “send some personnel to shut the Roadblock down“. We will however speak to the affected person on the phone and de-escalate the problem. Additionally, we have direct communications with various law enforcement entities, amongst whom are high ranking officers seconded to the GDoCS Toll Road Enforcement Units and the National Traffic Police Anti-Corruption Unit.
If a GENUINE report comes in and we can verify the details to our satisfaction, we will do everything we can to make sure that the matter is addressed effectively.
JPSA appeals to everyone to share this advisory and NOT the hoax with as many people as possible.
This page was last updated on Saturday 11 January, 2014