SA National Roads Agency Ltd (Sanral)<\/a>, are in shopping malls and alongside highways across Gauteng for motorists to register for discount toll fees.<\/p>\nYet, despite being staffed with between three to five cashiers and a branch supervisor, outlets had no customers. At one, a cashier was painting her nails while another was reading a magazine.<\/p>\n
Some outlets also had self-help computers for those who didn’t need direct help, flat screen televisions sets and comfortable chairs in anticipation of the queues.<\/p>\n
At Maponya mall in Soweto, human resources consultant Tshepo Tsotetsi was the only registration in an hour.<\/p>\n
“I registered my wife and myself with a heavy heart. I don’t want to break the law and I use the highways all the time getting around for work,” he said.<\/p>\n
“But I didn’t do it in good faith.”<\/p>\n
At the same mall Bafana Mkhabela took an e-toll registration brochure.<\/p>\n
“I use my mom’s car to get to college in Centurion and, although I don’t want to register, she thinks I should,” the third-year computer student said.<\/p>\n
“It’s going to cost our family a lot though, because I go through four tolls just to get to college.”<\/p>\n
At Cresta centre in Randburg, the e-toll outlet was empty, despite three cashiers waiting for customers. Businessman Tertius Barnardt, who uses the post office next door daily said he had never seen anyone inside.<\/p>\n
“Yesterday I took a pamphlet from a woman handing them out at a traffic light,” he said, “she was so delighted and surprised that I was even prepared to take one.”<\/p>\n
Barnardt said he was still unsure if he would register.<\/p>\n
“In Gauteng, we are up to our necks in fees and taxes,” he said, “and where is the money for this going to go?”<\/p>\n
Lwando Malotana, a training consultant from Randpark Ridge, said he was hoping the whole project would be scrapped before he had to register.<\/p>\n
“I watched what happened with the national strike in March and I have been following the debate with interest,” he said, referring to the protest against e-tolling by trade union federation Cosatu.<\/p>\n
“I will wait and see and maybe register just before the tolls go online.”<\/p>\n
San Ridge Square in Midrand was busy on Thursday, the parking area full, but the e-toll outlet empty. This area would be heavily affected by the e-tolls on the N1, which links the area with Johannesburg and Pretoria. At this e-toll outlet, five staff chatted with each other to pass the time.<\/p>\n
Stephen Maupi, a credit controller for a cellphone company, said he commuted from Randburg to his office in Midrand, and constantly moved around Gauteng visiting stores.<\/p>\n
“In South Africa these things are proposed and then we just have to pay. I would like to know more about this Austrian company that has been involved with the e-tolls and where the money from all of this is going to go.”<\/p>\n
Michael Mafagane, a maintenance worker commuting weekly from Pretoria to Midrand, said he welcomed the move to exempt public transport from e-tolls.<\/p>\n
“There are a lot of cars with just one person in them driving on this highway. Maybe it’s time people started using public transport to save on e-toll fees. This is one way of cutting down the traffic on our roads.”<\/p>\n
At Benmore shopping centre, three cashiers watched the clock until going-home time. The mall was busy but no-one was at the e-toll outlet.<\/p>\n
Douglasdale retiree Robin James had no intention to register for the e-toll.<\/p>\n
“If the authorities can’t get an electricity bill right, why would I give them access to my bank account for the e-toll?” he asked.<\/p>\n
“No, we have had enough. They (Sanral) can send me a bill. If they can find me.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gauteng’s e-toll registration outlets were empty on Thursday with virtually no-one registering for e-tags, despite the looming April 30 deadline, when the tolls go live<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25,2341,429,2207],"class_list":["post-9729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-active","tag-etoll","tag-sanral","tag-tolling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9729"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9732,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9729\/revisions\/9732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}