A project doomed from the start
Nearly a year since Gauteng's e-tolling system was implemented, activists maintain the system is a massive failure that has racked up a whopping R2 billion in unpaid motorists bill, and a compliance rate of just 30 percent. Although e-tolling has split th
cannot be anything else. Even if it were to become the “most users pay system”, there would never be 100 percent compliance and if anyone thinks the NPA would apply for extradition orders to haul foreign visitors back to South Africa to stand trial for driving on these roads and not paying, they are quite mad.
Sanral has been talking about “the rule of law” and threatening criminal action for almost as long as it’s been telling people about the socalled benefits of e-tolling. Sanral and the NPA should have started instituting prosecutions way back in April if they were confident they would succeed in convicting anyone. Instead, they chose to wait and let the outstanding unpaid e-toll bills spiral to what is conceivably close to R2 billion by now.
They still haven’t prosecuted anyone for non-payment of e-tolls, but if or when they do, the knock-on effect of criminalising what could quite realistically be hundreds of thousands of people will cripple the economy – not just in Gauteng – if indeed they succeed in convicting anyone at all. If they don’t prosecute people, more and more of those registered will stop paying, until no-one is left paying.
All of this is assuming they don’t try the tactic of nailing a few people in a highly-publicised manner in the hope of trying to scare others into submission. Knowing Sanral, this is far from unlikely despite the fact that e-tolling is currently under review. A lot can happen between now and any resolutions adopted at the ANC national conference in June 2016, which may or may not echo those taken at the Gauteng conference recently.
Beware of applying logic though. Proven logic has not won the day – yet.