E-tolling anxiety

From June 2011, all South African citizens will be required to wear an ankle bracelet that determines the amount of steps one takes on pavements.

People will have to pay appropriate toll pavement fees, according to how many steps they take. The funds will be used for the maintenance of all pavements and pedestrian crossings. Government officials suggest citizens take larger steps if they wish to accumulate fewer costs.

Alright, that was a lie.

But in a few years, who knows? Something like this could be accepted by government and then rolled out over so many years that people forget about it or hope it may not happen, all the while tender wars are going on and contracts go back and forth in legal battles.

That's usually the way it works. A new fee that you would never have dreamt of emerges and grips you by the ankle. And that grip is superhuman, because it is usually powered by some of kind of technology.

Yes, the same technology that is supposed to help eradicate poverty, close the digital divide, and change SA's status from “developing” to “developed”.

The government puts new computers in schools and we see technology helping to close the divide, eradicate poverty and change SA's status.

The government rolls out broadband connectivity to rural areas and we see technology helping to close the divide, eradicate poverty and change SA's status.

The government builds fancy structures across the highways to charge us for going to work and then back home and we see technology helping to change SA's status.

What's the use of becoming a hi-tech, ICT king of a country if the citizens do not benefit from it and are still poor, hungry and uneducated? I never saw an RFID tag fill anyone's stomach.

That's usually the way it works. A new fee that you would never have dreamt of emerges and grips you by the ankle.

Farzana Rasool, journalist, ITWeb

I am not a technophobe or a complete idiot. I sincerely believe technology is key to the progression of the country, but I think the insertion of a “but” is critical.

Technology is the key to progress, if it empowers those that need to be and betters areas that need improvement. Technology needs to be used for the development of the country at large.

I'm not quite sure e-tolling fits that description. It's the new system, which will be implemented at some unclear point in 2011, in Gauteng.

It will see e-tags being placed on cars. These tags will be read by overhead gantries that have already been built at certain points on highways. Alternatively, if a vehicle does not have a tag, the front and back licence plates will be photographed and the registered owner of the vehicle will be charged the tolling fee.

There will be 42 of these gantries on the province's highways and commuters will be charged every time they pass one of them. The amount will be pulled out of their registered e-toll accounts.

E-tolling may sound impressive and progressive, but I have a few issues with it, most importantly, the cost. Yes, I know you got those e-mails too.

Anecdotal evidence - from official sources - is that e-tolling could cost the average person between R700 and R1 000 a month, if they pass two tolls, in each direction, per day. Go ahead and panic.

The same official sources have admitted, unofficially, that none of this would have been necessary had government actually upgraded highways as the need arose, a good few years ago - again... think Eskom here. But that is something you're not supposed to know.

That's a lot for most South Africans to pay. And without a safe, reliable public transport system in place, what are the alternatives?

I can just see it now; back roads will become severely clogged, because people will use them not only to avoid traffic lights, but to avoid e-tolling gates as well.

There are still so many questions that aren't being answered.

How much exactly will e-tolling cost? What happens when the system doesn't work properly (and this is likely to happen at some point) and people get charged more than they're supposed to? Can chips be stolen off cars and used by another person?

What happens in the situation of fraudulent plates, since the intelligent number plates project has been put on hold indefinitely?

The e-tolling situation is like those creepy moments in movies when everything is quiet, but enough hype is built up by the telling sound-effects, to let you know that “it” is about to pounce and slam you into the ground.

I'm pretty sure government officials are sitting back with boxes of popcorn and enjoying the sight of squirming drivers who dread the arrival of e-tolling.

I see the aim of it. I know there is some economic reasoning involved in e-tolling and I will attempt to understand it very simplistically.

The government needs to get money back from road-users in order to maintain those roads that are being used. I get it.

What I don't get, is why more effort isn't put into a better public transport system first. The money used to build the e-tolling structures, their booths next to the highways and producing e-tags could have been used towards implementing a better transport system, right?

Then there's a smaller amount of vehicles on the roads, which then need less maintenance and SA is all of a sudden a pothole-free nation, without costing the citizens an arm and a leg. And less vehicles also means less carbon emissions. It's a win-win-win.

I think my two and two make four.