JOHANNESBURG - Several weeks after announcing "The South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (SANRAL) would like to unequivocally state that no staff from either SANRAL or its toll operator, ETC, have conducted any roadblocks as described in the emails and social network postings that allege this" on the SANRAL website and in media releases sent out to the press, SANRAL has commissioned auditing firm Deloitte & Touche to conduct a "forensic investigation" into the matter. This has come after Howard Dembovsky of Justice Project SA sent an email to several parties at SANRAL, including but not limited to its CEO Nazir Alli enquiring why it was that such a claim had been made without him so much as being contacted to shed any light on the matter.

The word "unequivocally" means "leaving no doubt and/or unambiguous" and one has to ask why SANRAL chose to put the cart before the horse in issuing such a definitive statement and only initiating an investigation several weeks after doing so. But putting the cart before the horse seems to be the manner in which SANRAL operates and this is evident by the entire saga that has surrounded the Open Road Tolling (eTolling) issue of the Johannesburg and Pretoria freeways. [More]