South African E-Toll Consultation SAGA: Corporate Governance Lessons for Public Consultation in Mega-Projects

Abstract

Mega-projects have unfortunately gained a bad name the world over. The electronic-tolling project in Johannesburg called the GFIP (Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project) is one such project. The perfunctory consultation initiative in an environment where the legislation is not robust and the corporate governance is still fledging led to opportunistic behaviours characterised by malicious compliance. The take home lesson especially in these high dollar projects is to be prescriptive on the consultation process that is backed by a well-thought-out legal framework. The scrutiny of documents and interviewing all the stakeholders was insightful and instructive even to other jurisdictions. Notably that a shallow and limited consultation drive is counter-productive. For a consultation drive to yield desired results it has to be deliberate, aggressive and tailor-made to suit contextual exigencies.