Sanral self-deception on E-tag sales worrying – Outa
Outa says they are deeply concerned by Sanral’s media spin, wherein they claim their e-tag sales have exceeded one million.
Following Outa’s recent research, which found that less than 30 per cent of freeway users’ vehicles are fitted with e-tags, Vusi Mona, the spokesman for Sanral, says they have approximately 66 per cent e-tag registrations (more one million registrations).
“This betrays Mona’s internal confusion, because this contradicts Sanral’s own statistical modelling, in which they speak of an average of 2.5-m unique vehicles users per month on Gauteng’s freeways.
“Sixty six per cent of 2.5-m vehicles would mean that some 1.65-m vehicles had fitted e-tags,” says John Clarke, spokesperson for Outa.
He says that Outa has exposed Sanral’s deliberate misinformation about the number of e-tag sales in the past, and once again they have been deceitful, by giving a false impression of the public’s acceptance of the ill-conceived scheme.
“I sense that Mona is projecting the wish of his own subconscious thinking again, not an honest and transparent engagement with reality,” he says.
“This would be faintly amusing if it wasn’t so serious, not just for Sanral, but for Gauteng residents who really do need an ‘intelligent transport system’, which is what e-tolling was supposed to bring. “
He says it is time for everyone to raise their collective IQ and get to grips with the underlying strategic blunders.
“We also need to address the ‘smell’ around the ethical and moral issues embodied in the e-tolling decision. Solving problems of operational inefficiency, and resolving strategic misjudgements become much easier if there is integrity at the moral and ethical level.”
Wayne Duvenage, chairperson of Outa, says that, once again, they insist that Sanral allows an independent inspection of their system, so that the constitutionally entrenched human right of access to information of citizens is satisfied.
“We have the right to know what the actual number of e-tag transactions is, expressed as a percentage of the total; why doesn’t Sanral provide us with a chart that shows what has happened since e-tolling commenced on December 3?” adds Duvenage.
He says the e-tag is easy enough to see.
“We urge the public to look around and do their own counts, and they will plainly see evidence of Sanral’s self-deception.
“However, let us not lose sight of the underlying problem, which is the lack of a sound ethical and moral rationale for e-tolling over the alternative funding options that were available.”
