‘E-tolls firm cuts temporary staff’

A toll gate on the N1 North just before the Beyers Naude offramp in Gauteng. Photo: Dumisani Sibeko

A toll gate on the N1 North just before the Beyers Naude offramp in Gauteng. Photo: Dumisani Sibeko

Published Oct 21, 2014

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Johannesburg - The company that runs the e-toll-collection process, Electronic Toll Collection (ETC), said yesterday the only employees they are letting go are temporary subcontractor staff.

On Thursday, Cosatu Gauteng secretary Dumisani Dakile said the e-tolling system was facing a crisis because many workers were being retrenched by Sanral and the agencies and labour brokers it uses.

“We have confirmed that more than 1 200 have been retrenched at Sanral,” Dakile said.

The company said there were more than 2 000 temporary staff members during the first phase of the project.

Fin24 reported that workers went on a brief strike at ETC’s complaints and administration centres last week.

Jamie Surkont, chief executive of ETC, said it was decided from the start of the project that the operational cost would need to be managed effectively.

“As such, the contract called for the reduction in the number of staff and the closure of temporary structures and services when the ‘steady state’ phase was reached,” Surkont said.

The project required an increase in staff during its registration phase, and now it required a reduction in staff and the closure of temporary structures and services.

He said ETC had taken 560 temporary employees and put them on ETC contracts.

The chairman of the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance, Wayne Duvenage, said the retrenchments were a serious issue as they were indications of problems in the system.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that Sanral and the Department of Transport had changed their minds and would be making a submission to the Gauteng e-toll panel.

Justice Project SA chairman Howard Dembovsky said the decision should have been made a month ago when everyone else was making submissions because the panel had limited time to write up a report before November 30.

“No one is trying to or has tried to deny Sanral, the national Department of Transport and Minister (Dipuo) Peters their right to be heard – quite the opposite, in fact.

“All we are saying is that there was a time and place for this to be done and all of them decided to be vindictive and dictatorial instead of seizing the moment and showing South Africans they are reasonable people with a reasonable argument to present,” Dembovsky said.

Duvenage said they looked forward to hearing Sanral’s responses to questions and concerns that have emerged.

“We hope that Sanral will also begin to participate in live panel discussions and radio talk shows to answer their critics and the public by explaining themselves on the matters and questions which they constantly ignore. This behaviour simply raises the level of mistrust in their actions,” Duvenage said. - The Star

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