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E-toll panel misunderstands disobedience - Outa

Johannesburg - The Opposition To Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) said on Tuesday it rejects the position taken by the e-toll review panel that there is "no justification for civil disobedience" and that "boycotting e-tolls sets unsustainable precendents and threatens democracy and social cohesion".

Outa is currently compiling an in-depth summary and report in response to the e-toll panel's findings and recommendations.

"In fact, government's illegitimate actions are perhaps in general, and certainly in this situation, the greatest threat to democracy and the panel has ignored this point," said Outa.

"Conscientious civil disobedience is morally justified and aboslutely necessary when government ignores the will of the people on an unjust and irrational policy."

Outa fails to understand how the panel could conclude that there is no justification for civil disobedience, while also having found that e-tolling places an unfair socio-economic burden on poorer working class citizens, that it perpetuates apartheid's spatial inequalities, that the system is administratively cumbersome and lacks public support due to a dismal public engagement process and other issues.

For Outa it essentially boils down to a puzzling contradiction by the panel, which detracts from the overall credibility of the report.

READ: E-toll woes lower Moody's outlook on Sanral

"While we applaud the panel for strongly espousing a human rights approach to assessing socio-economic impact, the panel has been extremely selective in enunciating only certain human rights contained in the Bill of Rights. Nowhere in the entire report do we find any discussion on the fundamental human right that Sanral has most blatantly and repeatedly violated in every major tolling project in South Africa - the right of access to information," said Outa.

The panel's report also states that "the success of...any public policy for that matter, requires the creation of mechanisms for the effective articulatio of 'people's voice', particularly at the implementation stage".

Outa agrees with the panel in this regard, which is why it is puzzled with the panel's continued support for the e-toll scheme as being an acceptable solution, even if only partially so in a hybrid funding scheme.

"Policy development requires the embracing of scrutiny by critics and other external experts to challenge the submissions proposed by government and its state owned entities. This is a matter which government has spectacularly failed at in the case of the e-tolling decision, and is a matter which the panel needed to highlight in no uncertain terms," said Outa.

"More fundamental than that, has been Sanral's prioritisation of the commercial interests of construction consortia and the private sector contractors over the common good of society, which is highlighted by the panel."

READ: E-tolls 'systematically collapsing' - MP

Outa believes the panel was remiss in not going deeper into this issue and should perhaps have indicated the need for an independent commission of enquiry.

Outa said it recognises that the panel was purely advisory.

"The panel has at least confirmed what Outa asserted from the start: That e-tolling is purely a means of paying off a financial debt, rather than a sustainable long-term economic intervention," said Outa.

While the panel's report has proposed various solutions for finding money from society, Outa believes it has fundamentally erred in two areas.

Firstly, Outa claims the panel failed to conduct a detailed assessment of the status quo.

"Which, if they had done so, would have led them to a conclusion of the e-toll system's unworkability and its failure," said Outa.

"Secondly, while it is not their call to make, they have largely ignored the strong proposal for use of National Treasury funding - including the efficient fuel levy - which attracts zero administrative costs and inefficiencies."

Outa said its detailed evaluation of the panel's report will be released early in February.

ALSO READ: E-toll report a victory for the poor - SACP

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