SANRAL’S baby gives birth to PR crisis
The crisis
SANRAL’S lack of transparency during the development of the E-tolls (electronic tolling) has resulted in the public distrusting them and has led to an overall loss of credibility and ultimately the birth of the problematic PR crisis. The crisis developed from a lack of two-way effective communication and because of a lack of transparency on the part of SANRAL. SANRAL’s PR team should have predicted such an outcome and steered the company into a better direction and stuck to the number one rule of PR, and that’s always be honest with the media and your public's because nothing builds credibility like honesty. Yes, initially being upfront about E-tolling would have brought about resistance, but the resistance encountered wouldn't have been as severe as the resistance/opposition that the system is encountering now because of SANRAL’S attempt to strong-arm Gauteng motorists to buy into a system in which they did not have a say in. SANRAL’S PR team has a gigantic mountain to climb in terms of addressing the issues caused by E-tolls. The following article provides insight into Gauteng motorists’ feelings towards the E-tolling system source: http://goo.gl/4FlVim
Source: YouTube. http://goo.gl/aQ8NJ4
Addressing the crisis from a PR perspective
Instead of SANRAL attempting to strong-arm the public they should firstly accept full responsibility for the misunderstanding and apologise to the public. Then attempt to create understanding for the implementation of E-tolls by providing a detailed and transparent explanation on things like: why the taxes that are paid every month by hardworking South Africans are insufficient to fit the bill for the road improvements? They should also provide an explanation on their perspective of the accusation of E-tolls being a form of double taxation. SANRAL needs to make attempts to win back the public’s trust through effective two-way communication and sit down and have meaningful transparent negotiations with OUTA’s in order to achieve the best possible outcome for both parties. OUTA’s key arguments against the E-tolling system can be found by following the link provided: http://goo.gl/pil8K5 If negotiations do not prove to be fruitful I believe, in all honesty and from an objective standpoint, as an aspiring Public Relations Practitioner that the only way for SANRAL to fix their tainted reputation is to apologise for the lack of transparency and to do away with the E-tolling system all together because strong-arming the public through threats of litigation will only add petrol to the fire.
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Gauteng motorists, 7/07/14, on Maraisburg Road Johannesburg, peacefully up in arms against the implementation of E-tolls. |
Source: Fin24. http://goo.gl/yjMCvf
The dynamic field of PR
With the advent of Web 2.0 and the various social media that came along with it social networking has never been easier. Therefore, there is no excuse for any PR team to not have effective two way communication with their public's because the landscape of PR has changed to become more accommodating to both businesses and their public's. The increased information and technology has resulted in the end users of information becoming the new influencers who are able to impact the organisation positively or negatively by sharing/publishing their experiences which has a lot of power when it comes to evoking emotion. Businesses who do not take advantage of the opportunities that social media affords them are doing themselves a disservice. For more information on the dynamic field of PR follow this link http://goo.gl/Soizwn
Source: Google Images. http://goo.gl/2tpLHH
I 100% agree with your view on how SANRAL should have handled the communication.
ReplyDeleteThe problems which they faced were tragic and did not have a pr plan in pace to rectify the problem in time. This then lead to it being taken to court and legal strikes by motorists.
The E-toll is an unnecessary expense to road users who use their personal vehicles.
There have already been a number of problems that have risen with the billing system for e-toll, how do you think SANRAL should make use of their PR souses to convince motorist to pay their bills?
Thanks for your comment and question Hanna. We share basically the same sentiments, but to answer your question as stated in my blog post I think that negotiations should take place between SANRAL and OUTA'S in order to reach a mutually beneficial agreement and try to bridge the gap that was left by the lack of communication and if that cannot be reached I believe that SANRAL should do away with E-tolls because it's an unnecessary expense and is something that was not properly communicated with the public in the first place.
ReplyDeleteON POINT! What grabbed my attention was the lack of transparency of the during the development of the electronic tolling which led to the public losing trust in SANRAL. This e-tolling debacal has caused a major unrest among motorists, you've also pointed out an important fact that it has become a PR crisis.
ReplyDeleteYour argument about the Government having to provide answers as to WHY the taxes from hard-working citizens of S.A, is insufficient for road works to be completed is an important question raised.
Implementing this system was a total waste of time and money, and it literally angered S.A motorists. SANRAL should simply apologies their lack of transparency and fix the national disaster they have created!!
I agree with your view, the sad thing about this whole affair is that, before the e-tolling fiasco, SANRAL was one of the better run government organisations, by reputation. My personal view about this is that the E- Tolling should come to an end.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you Nadine and I believe the only way to fix this crisis is to do away with E-tolls because the way I see it, it's a form of double taxation which is illegal.
ReplyDeleteDenver your view is totally in line with mine and I 100% agree that E-tolls should come to an end.
ReplyDeleteWell i honestly don't see the necessity to have these E-tolls like really SANRAL is just not being fair on citizens who already have a lot expenses to pay you know so i really feel like E-tolls should just be done away with.
ReplyDeleteE-tolls should come to an end ,people are actually paying for what has been free for all this years ,The government could not even properly inform people.But how can they build up their reputation ? because I no longer trust SANRAL.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Felicia E-tolls is just taking away from the poor and giving to the rich. Government should spend our tax money more responsibly and not make their problems ours.
ReplyDeleteExactly Sol because no new routes were built it was just road improvements that were done. They can start by doing away with the system everyone is against in an attempt to show good faith and then improve their external communications in an attempt to win back trust. That's how in my opinion they will win back the trust of the public.
ReplyDeleteI actually think that SANRAL should have invested all that money on upgrading the roads in the rural areas cause they need proper road infrastructures, upgrading and maintaining existing routes. I find it pointless for motorists to pay for driving on public road, government should have banned this idea before it started cooking.
ReplyDeleteWell the improvements to the roads and the overall infrastructure was needed in order to accommodate the 2010 Soccer World Cup. I believe the passing of E-tolls is to provide another tax income to try and fill the hole that is left by corruption in Government.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Preston, if SANRAL was innocent with the motorist from the on go they will be not facing this problem. Also it doesn't make sense that SANRAL didn't use Social Media to communicate with the users. Where was their PR Department in this whole thing?
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. I believe the PR team was sleeping on the job and if they had done their jobs this crisis wouldn't have occurred.
ReplyDelete