Flawed report: ‘folk like e-tolls’

SURVEY SAYS GAUTENGERS HAPPY TO PAY But public watchdog Outa says researchers’ findings are seriously wanting.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has hit out at an error-filled research report on Gauteng quality of life, which claims more than half of residents have no objection to paying e-tolls.

Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage said: “If this research depicted a picture of public sentiment, why then does Sanral [the SA National Roads Agency] only have 25% (or 30% as per Sanral) people paying for e-tolls today, which is lower than their collection rates in the 2016 period?

“Furthermore, in other polls we see indication that of the freeway users, the vast majority don’t pay and will continue not to pay.

“Those who are paying would rather not pay. In short, this research appears so far from the reality of Sanral’s own figures that we would say its credibility is in question,” said Duvenage.

The report – Gauteng City-Region Observatory’s (GCRO) Quality of Life Survey (Qol) (2017/18) – said its research showed there was an “increase of (roughly) 10 percentage points, from 40% in QoL 2015/16, to 51% in QoL 2017/18 from respondents” saying they were “willing” to pay for e-tolls.

GCRO senior researcher Julia de Kadt said the survey consisted of 24 889 respondents and that the selection process was completely random and included all wards in Gauteng.

However, the researchers admitted three different mistakes in the e-toll section of the report alone, ranging from saying percentage instead of percentage points in the material released originally to the media, to the incorrect use of colours in a graphic and a badly-worded section on e-toll opinions.

But Sanral spokesperson Vusi Mona said: “The survey results clearly contradict the perceptions created by special interest groups that there is overwhelming resistance against e-tolls in Gauteng or that it is an issue which is uppermost in the minds of residents.”

However, the report’s own findings were that 53% of those in lower income groups were concerned about e-tolls, while 97% of those in the upper income groups were.

According to the report those opposed to, or vehemently opposed to, paying e-tolls had increased from 35% to 36% of those polled. –