Letter: Sanral’s continuous lies

PH Maharaj of the Human Rights Association (HRA) in KwaDukuza writes:

The Department of Transport including Sanral spends millions of rand in advertisements and deployment of traffic officers to cut down on road accidents and fatalities.

Sanral states that their programmes affirm our recognition of road safety as one of Sanral’s key pillars of operation.

This statement does not bode well for Sanral with the mess of the realignment at Umvoti and Umhlali bridges.

This construction (which was really uncalled for) started by a contractor in February 2016 and was to be completed on 22/02/2017. Let us study the timelines and the excuse of Sanral.

• 3/10/2017 Mr Raven Bikhari writes to Sanral for clarification on the upgrades at Umvoti and Umhlali Bridges. Sanral replies: “Sanral is in the process of exploring alternate options in order to mitigate and avoid further delays and try and complete the outstanding work.”

• North Coast Courier 9/2/2018. “Since July 2017 Sanral has been repeatedly blaming the delay on substandard material. The new expected completion date was moved to February 2018 but again the goal posts have been moved to the latter part of 2018.”

• Various issues were raised by the HRA in a letter dated 26/03/2018 to Sanral. Sanral replies: “We can anticipate that a contractor can be on site between July and August 2018.”

• 27/04/2018 Dolphin Coast Mail, Rishwaan Mahomed states: “We have to re-tender the entire contract and hopefully we will have a new contractor on Site by September.” (2018)

• 09/05/2018 Reply to HRA: “Just to inform you of progress, we have drafted the revised tender documents and submitted it to Sanral’s internal committee for approval”.

• 31/07/2018 Sanral’s reply to HRA: “National Treasury rejected Sanral’s proposal that the second highest scoring tenderer be considered for completion of this contract.”

• 01/10/2018 Sanral’s reply to HRA: “Due to no approvals being received from National Treasury no revised dates could be provided.” They also suggested that we write to “National Treasury expressing the concerns you have.” We did write and had a follow up but received no reply.

• 08/03/2019 Sanral’s reply to HRA also concerning pothles and traders operating at Umvoti Toll: “We would like to advise that we are now busy with the tender documentation and currently going through the approval process for finalization.” As far as the potholes are concerned, in the rare instances where they do start to develop, potholes are fixed within 48 hours.

• 16/08/2019 Sanral replied to HRA letter: “We are currently finalizing the tender document and will have a contractor appointed before the end of this year.” They have the audacity to state that “we are hoping that construction can commence within the next 18 – 24 months”. Yet previously they stated that they will have a contractor on site between July and August 2018. Now it means August 2022.

A massive SOE like Sanral is continually lying to the motorists and don’t realize the anger and frustration this is causing them.

We need a mandate from the public to be decided at a meeting to be held on 19/09/2019 at the Stanger Manor Community Hall commencing at 6.30pm.

We have to repeat the stand that the Union SATAWU took around March 30, 2018 when their members went on strike for a higher salary.

This is absolutely ridiculous and the time has come to mobilise and allow motorists to go through the toll without paying the fees until we get the required result.