Sanral survives its third scare

The South African National Roads Agency' s headquarters in Pretoria was evacuated yesterday after a bomb scare.

Police spokesman Brigadier Neville Malila confirmed that police were called at the agency's head office.

"There was a bomb scare but nothing was found. We normally do not go into details .We can just confirm that there was a bomb scare.

"Our dogs and all our experts were on the scene and nothing was found," said Malila.

On Tuesday, work was interrupted at the agency's central operations centre in Midrand and staff was evacuated after an envelope containing a suspicious white substance was found on the premises.

Tshwane Emergency Services and the police responded to the incident.

Upon investigation, the white substance was found to be harmless.

The building was treated as a crime scene and staff members who were exposed to the white substance were taken to hospital for medical examination as a precaution.

The agency said the evacuation did not compromise the e-toll collection process and toll gantries remained operational. But the evacuation affected the call centre's operations.

Agency CEO Nazir Ali slammed the hoaxes.

He said they were a threat to people's lives but not on the multibillion-rand project.

On Friday afternoon, the agency 's central operations centre in Midrand was again evacuated following another threat.

The agency said the e-tolling system was not affected by the evacuations.

Malila said the police will investigate all the three incidents.