E Tolls – 18 OCTOBER 2013 The QuadPara Association of South Africa (QASA) is extremely disappointed in the decision handed down by the Supreme Court of Appeal which left the substantive issue of lawfulness unresolved, by rather choosing to rule only on procedural technicalities. Most Quadriplegics and Paraplegics do not own vehicles and do not drive. They also do not have alternative methods of transport that are accessible and have always used the road system by the goodwill of family, friends and other supportive people. These very same people will now be subjected to eTolling costs when providing transport assistance to people with disabilities, a situation which will seriously compromise the mobility of people with disabilities. In the past cities were planned and built without meaningful participation of people with disabilities. Our constitution obliges any new building and road infrastructure to reduce rather than create barriers that prevent us from satisfying our fundamental human needs. The public engagement process is precisely to ensure this happens. Irrespective of whether it is legal or not, SANRAL has failed to show itself committed to the bill of rights, as evidenced by the shockingly poor public engagement process. SANRAL is confusing the disability sector’s situation by stating that exemption is available on application, yet this is comes as an afterthought rather than as fundamental design parameter. The needs for people with disabilities of this country were not fully considered within the design of the E toll system and we state again, as we have on numerous occasions, that it is not possible for our members to register for an E-TAG. We are road users not car owners and if the user pay principle is to be consistently applied, we should be catered for so our meager disability grant of R1240.00 is not eaten away. The most vulnerable and disadvantaged have been now ironically further ‘paralysed’ in our need for mobility in public spaces. The concerted citizen action that OUTA has mobilised has at least given us an opportunity to participate in the democratic space they have created so that we could represent the rights of our members, future members and people with disabilities from other constituencies. We have had to take risks, and will continue to do whatever civil courage requires of us to ensure human rights become meaningful. Going forward we intend to engage the South African Human Rights Commission and the Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities to assert our constitutional rights. We are very concerned that SANRAL and the Minister of Transport have failed to understand that human rights do not belong to the government, but to people.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 18:34:47 +0000
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