The Civil Engineering Contractor July 2018 | Page 38

THOUGHT LEADERS
O
utspoken, candid, and known
for shooting from the hip,
Duvenage responds to some
of the questions raised during The Civil
Engineering Contractor’s June interview
with Louw Kannemeyer, South African
National Roads Agency Limited’s
(SANRAL’s) engineering executive. system with the public for six months,
and then ran a referendum with the
public at which they received 75%
buy-in. So, it works well — when you
get the public buy-in. SANRAL failed
dismally in this regard,” he reiterates
with irritation.
One of the bones of contention
around the e-toll system is
that SANRAL didn’t ‘engage’
with the public. What could it
have done differently prior to
implementation to ensure buy-in
from the public?
Duvenage is quick off the mark: “The
extent of SANRAL’s public engagement
was dismal to say the least. It was a
‘box-ticking exercise’ as opposed to
meaningful engagement. All they did at
the end of 2007 was place one advert
in six newspapers, to request public
comment on the e-toll scheme. They
hid these adverts in some of the business
sections (least-read parts) of the
newspapers. The advert did not contain
tariffs and other vital information.”
He outlines that in total, a mere
28 responses to these adverts were
received and adds, “and yet, there
were 3.5-million registered vehicles in
Gauteng at the time. That in itself tells
you, the people were not informed of
the scheme.”
He stresses that there were no face-
to-face public engagement sessions
either, until the public outrage started,
“long after the money was spent, and
the gantries were [already] erected. In
other words, the public engagement
was meaningless, and they had little
opportunity to engage or impact
on the decision, which is why the
constitution requires that meaningful
public engagement must happen,” he
points out.
Duvenage cites two examples of
successful public buy-in to a tolling
system after public engagement: “In
London and Stockholm where e-tolls
were successfully implemented, there
was widespread public engagement,
which culminated in public acceptance
after extra public transport needs were
addressed and the tariffs were agreed
to upfront by the people of those cities.
In fact, in Stockholm, they tested the “The same e-toll scheme
was supposed to be
implemented in the Western
Cape in 2012. Fortunately,
the City of Cape Town caught
the plan ahead of time —
probably because it was DA
run and, in Gauteng’s case, it
was ANC run at the time, so
political pressure to question
Gauteng’s tolls was less
likely.”
38 - CEC July 2018
Word
around
our
South
African braais, however, is that
outstanding e-toll fines, whether
from fleet owners/operators
and private drivers, will prevent
renewing driving licenses should
the fees remain unpaid.
Duvenage considers this and answers:
“It appears that this is the intention of
the amendments being sought in a bill
to change the AARTO Act. However,
consider this: If indeed the amendments
to the Act seeks to place a block on
license renewals for unpaid e-tolls, in
effect, a national government system
(