by Amanda Watson
As nearly 5 000 vehicles took to Johannesburg’s highways at the weekend in protest against the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, Justice Project South Africa chairperson Howard Dembovsky has withdrawn his support for the National Consumer Commission to act as a mediator for motorists with e-toll queries.
A procession by Bikers Against E-tolls on Saturday, with an estimated 2 500 motorcyclists, stretching for about 12km, followed by about 2 000 vehicles joining Cars Against E-tolls, went on a go-slow drive on a number of major highways.
Yesterday, Dembovsky told The Citizen the National Consumer Commission is a “farce”. He had earlier called on motorists to make use of the commission to ensure their rights were not being violated by the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral). “We’re going to keep on protesting once a month – if not more – until the system is dismantled,” Dembovsky said.
His comments followed a comment by the National Consumer Commission head of advocacy, education and awareness, Phumeze Mlungu, on SABC1 that “Sanral’s e-toll terms and conditions are 90% compliant with the Consumer Protection Act” and that “legislative amendments will be required to bring them in line with the Act”.
Said Dembovsky: “When Mlungu says the system is 90% compliant, it means the system is not compliant… The National Consumer Commission is a department of the government; it is not a Chapter Nine institution such as the Public Protector. It is turning a blind eye to contraventions of its own legislation and for it to state ‘legislative amendments will be required to bring Sanral’s terms in line with the Act’ is an admission of collusion between the two.”
Since e-tolling started in December, complaints have flooded various news outlets, consumer complaints websites such as Hello Peter and social media.
In a statement yesterday, Sanral spokesperson Vusi Mona said the number of complaints – when viewed against the nearly one million vehicles registered for e-tolls – “is not large”.
“However, there is no room for complacency,” Mona said in a statement. “We would like to assure road users that we take all of their complaints seriously and are making every effort to deal with them. Where inconveniences have been caused to road users, we would like to sincerely apologise. When one looks at the volume of tags and passages per day, we would not say the system is falling apart, as some claim.”
The statement did not declare the number of complaints Sanral had received.
