“These vehicles need to have blue lights… If they don’t, they operate illegally,” roads agency’s spokesperson Vusi Mona said in a statement.
This follows a statement by the Justice Project South Africa on 18 July in which the organisation’s chairperson, Howard Dembovsky called for the removal of all Gauteng Traffic Police branding and blue lights from the road agency’s vehicles.
“The Sanral e-tolls branded vehicles [midi-buses, trucks, and trailers] all bear the five-pointed star of the [Gauteng Department of Community Safety] Gauteng Traffic Police and in the case of midi-buses and trucks, are fitted with blue flashing light bars and presumably sirens,” Dembovsky said.
“This in itself is tantamount to impersonation of a traffic officer [vehicle] and since Sanral has now publicly admitted that it ‘has no authority to enforce e-toll laws’, all Gauteng Traffic Police branding, warning lamps, and sirens must be removed from these vehicles forthwith.”
However, according to Mona, the roads agency had obtained legal advice through every step of the implementation of the e-tolling system in Gauteng.
“Those who want to challenge us on the legality of the use of blue lights are welcome to do so,” Mona said.
“What is more important here is the effort to do proper enforcement on our roads, thereby addressing issues such as non-roadworthy vehicles, vehicles without number plates or false number plates, and other road traffic offences.”
He said people who were complaining about Sanral’s vehicles were trying to undermine attempts by the agency to assist law enforcers on Gauteng’s highways.
The roads agency had faced significant criticism for the presence of its vehicles and officials at roadblocks set up on Gauteng highways by the Gauteng Department of Community Safety.
The roads agency was accused of using the roadblocks as a scare tactic by creating panic and speculation among motorists.
Despite the roads agency’s assertions that the road blocks served to address unroadworthy vehicles and those with cloned, missing or false registration plates, motorists claimed that during the roadblocks they had been asked whether they had obtained an e-tag and the names and identity numbers of those without an e-tag were recorded.
