Scenes from a go-slow as Gauteng drivers protest against e-tolls in 2013. (File)
Toll roads agency HQ gets bomb threat and ‘white powder’ packages
Anthrax scares may give a little more satisfaction than slamming down the phone on the SANRAL hotline, but is this lurch towards dirty tricks a good thing for democracy?
Scenes from a go-slow as Gauteng drivers protest against e-tolls in 2013. (File)
SANRAL – which, as embittered Gauteng road users know, stands for South African National Roads Agency – was forced to evacuate its headquarters three times in less than a week after a mysterious white powder was found inside the building.
The incident earlier this week was judged serious enough that SANRAL employees were decontaminated, although the powder ultimately proved harmless. Even if no Anthrax was found, however, the atmosphere among the staff has certainly taken a knock – workplace motivation takes on an entirely new dimension when it is an open secret that the broader public wishes your company would just disappear.
Disruptions to the agency’s call centre, which deals with many e-toll related enquiries, were briefly suspended, leading some South African Tweeters to wonder aloud how any caller could have known the difference.
The social media were broadly unsympathetic to the road agency’s troubles (@sumimaysue wrote “I will hazard a guess that people ain’t too happy with etolls”) but hoax anthrax is not our finest hour as a citizenry.
Read more:
Road infrastructure of SA’s economic hub endangered as SANRAL goes broke
