Unreliable and inconsistent: More e-toll inaccuracies

The State said the information subpoenaed from SANRAL relating to vehicle passage under gantries proved to be “inconsistent and unreliable”, and was therefore discarded.

The e-toll system is supposed to be world class technology that ought to provide accurate and indisputably factual data that enables judicial decisions to be made that do not have to rely on the subjective perceptions of parties seeking justice, especially after a tragic incident such as this.

The cause of justice cannot be served by objective evidence that has been found to be inconsistent and inaccurate. “It begs the question what else could be wrong with the information emanating from the e-toll system?” says John Clarke, OUTA’s spokesperson. “As it is, the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (OUTA) has received thousands of complaints about incorrect invoices sent to incorrect people, linked to incorrect vehicles.”

“OUTA calls on the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport to summon SANRAL CEO Nazir Alli to explain how so much money could have been spent on a high tech system that seems to have more holes than the fence around Nkandla. We also believe that no matter how much SANRAL and their economists tries to justify the e-toll scheme to be equitable and economically sound, there is now sufficient evidence that the e-toll scheme in Gauteng has failed dismally as a revenue collection mechanism for road infrastructure funding. The time has come to make a serious and beneficial decision for all parties concerned by scrapping the system.”