The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) has released a research report, "E-tolling at an Impasse: Transcending the mess in Gauteng", which it says brings to light the "fatal flaws, inconsistencies, absurdities and blatant lack of integrity" in the e-tolling decision.
Outa spokesperson and consultant John Clarke says, despite the 15 000-word, 32-page report being hard hitting, the alliance has tried to be "intellectually honest to generate light, rather than stoke more heat".
The report, says Clarke, interrogates the Gauteng open road tolling rationale in the light of international case studies and benchmarks for success.
E-toll authorities
Outa has sent the report to transport minister Dipuo Peters and Ruth Bhengu, chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport. The alliance has urged the e-toll representatives to "respond with political courage to honour the civil courage shown by some 70% of Gauteng motorist who have refused to buy e-tags because of the lack of transparency over the e-tolling decision".
Outa chairman Wayne Duvenage, who co-authored the report with Clarke, says the e-toll saga has the potential to become a far greater scandal than anything else currently burdening the present administration.
"We have written [the report] to educate ordinary members of the public, not only academics, journalists and government officials, on a number of pertinent insights and issues related to the e-tolling debacle.
"This is not a manicured propaganda exercise. It is a serious effort to transcend the mess and find a way out of what we believe is deep impasse that the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) executives have led us into."
Academic research
The report was inspired by a preliminary study by University of Pretoria academics Erin Hommes and Marlene Holmner, titled "Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS): privacy, security and societal considerations within the Gauteng case study".
Outa's research adds other examples of failed or failing ITS systems. "We concur with the views expressed by Hommes and Holmner [and] went further to understand the necessary and sufficient conditions for complex systems such as this to be viable," says Duvenage.
"Next we conducted research to establish a valid statistical measure of the actual e-tag registrations. Not only has this proven Sanral to be engaged in a massive exercise of self-deception, but it helped us understand why people are so outraged.
"However, we go beyond cursing the darkness to light some candles to throw some light on a way out of the impasse."
ITWeb is awaiting comment from both Sanral and the Department of Transport.
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