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Although it would not be accurate to say that Justice Project South Africa is in the least bit surprised at SANRAL’s latest disrespectful propaganda stunt contained in its media release of today, it would be accurate to say that we are not impressed by it.

SANRAL has NOT “remained silent” on the Gauteng e-tolls review panel as is being suggested by some. To the contrary, it has previously categorically stated that it will not co-operate with the panel.

For SANRAL to now come out with a hi-jack tactic stating that “The Board of Directors of the South African National Roads Agency SOC Ltd (SANRAL) sent an 8-page communique to Gauteng Premier David Makhura prior to the commencement of the 15-member panel’s hearings” is disingenuous at best.  “Has SANRAL not heard of following up and/or addressing communications to the entity involved?” asked JPSA’s national chairperson, Howard Dembovsky, “When I wrote to the panel asking to make a representation to it on behalf of JPSA, I got a response within hours and we were the first civic organisation to get to speak and make a written submission to the panel on Monday 1 September” he continued.

SANRAL again chooses to use words like “misinformation, propaganda and belligerence” in its media release today, while it is the one guilty of engaging in “misinformation, propaganda and belligerence”.  SANRAL seems to continually forget that, despite it not being a government department, it is a State Owned Enterprise and is therefore accountable to the people – not the other way around.

SANRAL has already been found to be engaging in false advertising by the Advertising Standards Authority, its claims have been refuted in parliamentary answers provided by the Minister of Transport and it and its spokespeople have used insulting and defamatory language by calling their opponents by calling people “hustlers” and telling people to “raise their IQs”, etc. There can be nothing more “belligerent” than State employees insulting members of the public, threatening them with criminal records, etc. given the fact that the word “belligerent” means “hostile or aggressive” and SANRAL’s approach has been both hostile and aggressive to anyone who doesn’t buy into its stories.

Furthermore, SANRAL is again showing its contempt for due democratic processes and the public it claims to serve by once again attempting to hi-jack the process by addressing the Gauteng e-tolls review panel through the media instead of having the guts to make its representations to the panel itself.

SANRAL is again referring to the outright lie that “the fuel levy cannot be ring-fenced” that it and Treasury has been perpetrating since this debate began.  The RAF levy is completely separate to the “fuel levy” and has been more than successful in financing the Road Accident Fund.  The RAF does not “collect the fuel levy or the RAF” either, the fuel wholesalers and Treasury do and it is then allocated to the RAF.

What’s more is that Section 34(1)(b) of the SANRAL Act clearly states that: “The Agency is funded and provided with capital from the levies on petrol and distillate fuel to be paid to the Agency in compliance with or in terms of any law by or in terms of which that levy is imposed” and yet SANRAL chooses to focus solely on its legalised Ponzi Scheme of bond sales, where investors are offered an extremely lucrative return on their investment.

The impressive piece of architecture that the SANRAL Central Operations Centre is housed in is largely comprised of glass and as the saying goes, “people in glass houses should not throw stones.”

Issued by JPSA