Commission looking into toll complaint

2012-04-16 22:33

Johannesburg - National Consumer Commissioner Mamodupi Mohlala will look into a complaint by the DA about the punitive rate motorists without e-tags will have to pay.

Democratic Alliance MP Neil Campbell lodged the complaint against the SA National Roads Agency Ltd (Sanral) with the commission at the weekend. On Monday the commissioner confirmed receipt.

"I confirm that I have referred it to the head of the complaints unit namely Ms [Prudence] Moilwa, who I have copied in this e-mail. We shall process the complaint," Mohlala wrote in an e-mail to Campbell.

Campbell said the complaint should be "supplementary" to his original one against Sanral, since there was no time to lodge a new complaint before tolling began on April 30.

Earlier on Monday, Sanral said motorists who did not register for the tags would pay a rate three times higher than normal to use Gauteng's toll roads.

This meant they would be charged R1.75/km, compared to the standard tariff of 30c/km for registered users.

Sanral said the higher fee was due to the need to recover costs, including invoicing and debt collection.

Its statement followed criticism by the DA on Sunday that the new rate had been introduced without consulting the public.

"The absolute arrogance and lack of transparent processes shown by Sanral to the public throughout the whole toll introduction is abhorrent," Campbell said.

Sanral gazetted the tariffs on Friday. It described an "alternate user" as someone "who does not have a valid and operational e-tag, is not registered with Sanral, and who is not a day-pass user".

On Monday, the Freedom Front Plus said it planned to lodge a complaint with Mohlala over the punitive rate.

"This difference in tariffs establishes unjustifiable discrimination and illegally forces road users to register for e-tags," FF Plus spokesperson Anton Alberts said in a statement.

- SAPA