Noisy e-toll gantry doesn’t ring well with residents

Residents living nearby the Kiewiet e-toll gantry are at their wits end due to a constant alarm sounding from the structure for nearly a week.

Christine Niemand, a resident in the area, said the alarm had been sounding for five days, but despite several complaints, reference numbers and assurances that the matter would be addressed there had been no efforts to disarm the alarm.

“It is constantly ringing and it is so frustrating because we endure it 24/7, we can’t even sleep,” she said.

Niemand said she had first taken the police to the gantry in the hope that they could intervene as it was a disturbance of the peace.

However, the police informed her that there was nothing they could do because they do not respond to alarms.

Meanwhile, her experiences at the South African National Roads Agency Limited’s Modderfontein e-toll office were appalling, she said, claiming that she was refused help because she did not have an e-tag.

“They were so rude and even laughed at me for complaining so much. A superintendent at the Modderfontein Sanral office even said because I don’t have an e-tag they were not going to resolve my problem,” she said.

Other officials at the office also dismissed her complaint saying that she was the only person complaining about the alarm, she added.

However, other residents had expressed their frustration about the alarm.

Another resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said the roads agency’s contacted him on the morning of 18 August assuring him that the alarm would be fixed on 18 August.

However, the alarm, which he described as very irritating, had yet to be fixed and continued to ring.

The roads agency did not responded to questions regarding the matter.