JOHANNESBURG – Justice Project South Africa welcomes the announcement by the Gauteng Premier, Mr David Makhura to establish a panel to review e-tolling on Gauteng’s freeways, thereby establishing what could possibly be the FIRST REAL platform for dialogue on the matter. We do so with a degree of “cautious optimism” due to the fact that this is not the first time that such a panel has been established and the last time this was done through the inter-ministerial committee, absolutely no blind notice was taken of any inputs civil society tried to make.
In addition, in 2011 a “Steering Committee” which was in reality, just a talk shop run by the very people who created the problem in the first place was established in order to call the tune to civil society. Any “review panel” that is established this time around MUST be representative of civil society, not just comprised of a bunch of politicians, bureaucrats and companies whose financial future is dependent on e-tolling continuing.
We also point out that whilst this panel is to be established, there has been no announcement as to when it will be established and/or how long it will take for this panel to “find lasting solutions” it purports to be seeking.
In the meantime, there is a looming serious matter which will cause irreparable harm to persons who have not and/or cannot pay e-tolls insofar as the so-called “discount extension” announced in Government Gazette 37637 of 12 May 2014 comes to an end on Monday 30 June 2014. It has been mooted that once it has come to an end SANRAL will embark on prosecutions of “offenders” through the National Prosecuting authority and Premier David Makhura has said “if you don’t pay your e-tolls, you don’t have my sympathy”, which does not instil confidence.
Spokespeople for SANRAL and Electronic Toll Collection (Pty) Ltd have been vociferous in their threats of criminalising citizens for the non-payment of e-tolls, with ETC’s Jamie Surkont even going so far as to state that “special treatment” will be applied to those who have told his staff where to get off when they are phoned by call centre agents.
“In our view, unless a serious and decisive intervention takes place NOW, the SANRAL runaway train will continue to head on a collision course with citizens whilst the panel fiddles about being established and seeking solutions,” said Howard Dembovsky. “Again we see a situation developing where the question of ‘unscrambling an egg’ will arise AFTER harm has been done and overturning criminal convictions certainly cannot be described as an easy thing to do, if indeed the courts see fit to convict people accused by SANRAL,” he continued.
We need to highlight that JPSA is NOT opposed to a true dialogue finally being opened up. We are merely pointing out that this so-called “National Law and Policy” is currently in force in Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Pretoria at this stage and if urgent interventions are not made at a national level, irreparable harm is going to be caused by the dogmatism and arrogance of SANRAL and their business partners.
We do however have to say that why it is felt that taxpayers’ money has to be wasted on yet another “panel of enquiry” is beyond us. The most obvious and “lasting solution” is to scrap urban tolling (e-tolls) entirely now – before the non-payment thereof creates an even bigger mess than it has already, and to implement an efficient, ring-fenced and financially inexpensive provincial fuel levy. A national RING-FENCED roads levy could also be implemented on the fuel pump price with little effort or overheads and mitigate the current plundering of the existing fuel levy for purposes other than roads.
The daily, prolific roadblocks set up by the Gauteng Department of Community Safety all around the GFIP whereat SANRAL e-tolls vans and trucks accompany these roadblocks do nothing to allay the fears of motorists that they will be intimidated at gunpoint to buckle under the pressure. In our view, these roadblocks should be halted immediately, or at the very least have the SANRAL e-tolls branded vehicles excluded from them as they are causing unwarranted panic and speculation.
Howard Dembovsky
National Chairman – Justice Project South Africa (NPC)