Following an evacuation after an envelope containing a white substance was found in the Sanral building, the agency said it did not compromise the toll collection process and toll gantries remained operational.
But, Sanral said the call centre was affected due to the evacuation of staff, but was currently operating at full capacity.
However, the Opposition to Urban Tolling Association said Sanral’s disaster recovery failure was alarming.
“It appears that following the precautions taken due to yesterday’s anthrax scare evacuation, the Electronic Tolling Collection centre has failed to successfully implement a disaster recovery procedure which one would expect from an organisation of this magnitude,” Outa said.
According to Outa, it was common practice to implement off-site continuity processes and disaster recovery centres to cater for unfortunate incidents of fire, damage or contamination scares, and Sanral had ample time to do so.
“Yet again, this is another example and indication of the unworkability of the system. The e-toll problems continue to mount,” Outa added.
Meanwhile, the DA had received more than 300 e-toll billing complaints against Sanral in the past seven days.
The DA’s Mmusi Maimane had urged the public to send their complaints to the party, which would lodge the complaints with the National Consumer Commission on their behalf.
According to Maimane, complaints included incorrect e-tolling bills, bills for multiple vehicles and vehicles that recipients did not own, recipients being told that they were being handed over for debt collection without receiving an invoice, and people who did not own a vehicle or have a drivers licence receiving SMSEs with outstanding balances.
Maimane said in one instance, a resident received an SMS from Sanral stating that he owed R00.00 and had been handed over to the Violations Processing Centre.
The e-toll payment process was equally difficult for some motorists.
Some took to consumer website Hellopeter, outlining their challenges with Sanral’s call centre and website.
Motorist, Tamar Kahanovitz said she went to the Killarney customer service centre to settle her e-toll balance after receiving an invoice in the mail.
She said upon arrival there were long queues of people waiting to be assisted and after speaking to those in the queues, discovered that some had been waiting for up to three hours after returning for many days.
Furthermore, Kahanovitz said when she asked for a receipt after paying, the consultant told her that she could not give her one because the system was down.
She said she was frustrated by the system which was unreliable and time consuming.
