E-tag sales a 'marketing trick'

Cosatu and Outa say most e-tags have been bought by corporate entities and government.

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While the fight against Gauteng's e-tolls rages on, there seems to be no clarity as to the amount of e-tags that have been sold by the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) to date.

Sanral has not yet been able to supply the latest figures on e-tag sales, but Alex van Niekerk, senior project manager for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, said the last figure was estimated at around 600 000.

However, the figure was dismissed as a mere "marketing trick" by Wayne Duvenage, chairman of the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa).

"They have been claiming that they've sold 600 000 e-tags, but they have given a lot of these to government fleets, so they have not been bought by the general public," says Duvenage.

He adds that Sanral is trying to create a rush for the purchasing of e-tags. "In actual fact, they are very concerned about e-tag sales."

Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) spokesperson Patrick Craven agrees, saying the organisation believes only corporate entities and government departments have purchased e-tags. "There is no evidence that the general public has bought any of these e-tags."

Questions have also been raised about various roadside information boards that display e-toll tariffs, and why the tariff amounts that were previously displayed are no longer visible. Sanral says it decided that both the standard and the e-tag tariff will be displayed at the roadside and, therefore, new signs have been erected, which currently do not display any tariffs.

While Outa has taken its fight against the Gauteng e-tolls to court, Cosatu has expressed its opposition via large-scale protest action.

The union federation led massive slow-driving motorcades on Gauteng's highways, in Johannesburg and Pretoria, in December last year and February this year in protest against the e-tolls.

Craven says Cosatu's campaign continues and it plans to take further action should e-tolling go ahead.

"I can't exactly say what our plans would be, but we might have another mass motorcade on Gauteng's highways."