Business Day
*Botched communication on tolls* *Kola Jolaolu, Letters, Business Day, 12 March 2012*The Gauteng road toll debacle is simply another example of miscommunication --- or worse still, lack of communication in project management. The Gauteng provincial government and/or the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) should have done a better job of communicating the rationale behind the toll fees. Unfortunately, this was not done as well as it should have been done.
I am a regular user of the R21 road and have been using it for years. I have had the experience of what driving on the road used to be like, and how it is now.
When I consider the time, effort and the amount of fuel I burn driving at snail speed because of the congestion on the road, I am quite happy to pay the R3 per gantry that I will be requested to pay so I can experience the sheer pleasure of driving on the road. I am sure if this was adequately communicated, many people like me would understand the need to pay the toll. The cost in monetary terms of the inconvenience we hitherto experienced while driving on the road is probably still higher than the toll fees. If that were demonstrated in addition to the fact that the tolled roads were built with borrowed money, and that there is a need to pay back the loan, then users would understand.
Incidentally, we are in the process of ramping up the building of infrastructure in the country and the government has asked for private-sector participation --- both local and foreign. The situation that we now have on our hands, where it appears that SA might renege on loan covenants --- causing the downgrade of Sanral's credit rating --- does little to inspire confidence in the international capital markets.
This should be corrected. A well-thought-through change-management intervention can still resolve this --- irrespective of the court challenges and protest actions.
The government's resoluteness on the matter is also helpful. *Kola Jolaolu Cape Town * *From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=167175* ** ** ** -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
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