Body braces to deal with e-toll problems

COMPLAINTS about e-tolling will be taken up by the National Consumer Commission, but the NCC should not be the first line of complaint, commissioner Ebrahim Mohamed said yesterday.

“The NCC always encourages consumers to lodge complaints at the point of sale, and attempt to have their complaints dealt with there,” he said.

If consumers were met with indifference or felt their complaints were not adequately addressed by the company or entity, they could then take the matter up with the NCC.

“This does not preclude consumers from approaching the NCC with their complaints,” Mohamed said.

The DA and the Freedom Front Plus recently announced they would facilitate motorists’ e-toll account complaints by submitting them to the NCC.

Mohamed said the commission would investigate the complaints, but had to do so within its constrained resources.

“It is our mandate to assist consumers, and we will. What we would do is set up a team to look at these complaints and categorise them.”

The NCC would then discuss the problems with the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) and look at ways of resolving the problems.

Mohamed said the NCC was not an adjudication body, and did not have the power to declare an account invalid.

However, it could refer the matter to the Consumer Tribunal, which had greater powers in this regard.

The FF Plus said yesterday it would lodge a complaint with the NCC about a number of problems with e-toll accounts that Gauteng motorists had experienced.

“These complaints form part of the party’s continued opposition to toll roads… in its struggle against the abuse of the system by Sanral,” FF Plus transport spokesman Anton Alberts said.

So far, complaints included the incorrect breakdown of costs on e-toll accounts, accounts wrongfully issued to people who had not used the tolled roads, and higher prices for motorists who chose not to get e-tags.

The FF Plus said it would launch a website later in the week to help people with e-toll complaints to submit them to the NCC. The DA launched a similar initiative last week.

Sanral could not immediately be reached for comment. – Sapa