LIKE most people I hate bullies with a passion. My experience has been that bullies are usually cowards who try to boost their low self-worth by targeting the weak.

On Tuesday Sanral chief executive Nazir Alli behaved like a typical bully, announcing that from April 30 those who have not registered for e-tolls and do not have e-tags will not be able to renew their vehicle licences.

Hand over your lunch box or else.

Unfortunately this has been how the arrogant Sanral and the government are handling the issue of e-tolls.

Both have been wielding the whip, telling the public to toe the line or else... The utterances from government spokesman Jimmy "Get used to it" Manyi illustrate the government's insensitivity on this issue.

Last week Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane told a post-cabinet media briefing that the government was going ahead with the implementation of the e-tolling system regardless of the objections raised by the public.

"The government has made a decision and the government is going to proceed to implement that decision," Chabane said.

This he said after thousands of Cosatu members and sympathisers took to the street last Wednesday to protest against the implementation of the e-tolling system.

Chabane went on to say that the government was not going to change its position "on the basis that there was a march".

Now we have come to learn that the government's intransigence in this matter is linked to the fact that the Public Investment Corporation - an investment manager for state institutions - has invested billions of civil servants' pensions in Sanral.

This means the government is now concerned that any failure of the e-tolls will negatively affect the civil servants' pensions. So the system must be implemented at all costs, regardless of objections by the public.

Listening to all these decisions taken by the government I have asked myself what happened to "government by consensus".

I also wondered: "What happened to 'the government of the people, for the people, by the people' that many South Africans shed their blood for, and that millions of others voted for for the first time in 1994."

If there is one issue that our government has mishandled and continues to mishandle, this is it.

In the first instance, contrary to what the government and Sanral want everyone to believe, there was no proper consultation.

The 18 months' consultation that the government and Sanral are waving in the public's face to justify their hard-line stance happened after the contract to build the e-tolls had been signed.

To the public's dismay the government has overlooked some of the adverse effects of e-tolling.

Research has shown that the system does have some benefits.

One of them is increased fuel efficiency because the system will reduce the number of stoppages at toll gates.

This will reduce travelling and improve delivery time. But that's a technical matter.

There are serious adverse effects the system will have on the economy in the region where it is implemented.

These include increased cost of travel to work for commuters and transportation of goods using these tolls will have an enormous impact on the supply chain, resulting in an increase in the cost of products and congestion on byways as commuters avoid tolls.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that Gauteng does not have well-maintained secondary roads.

As many analysts have argued, the government has put the cart before the horse by introducing the system before improving Gauteng's public transport system.

As a middle-income resident of Gauteng who uses the freeway to travel to work, the e-toll system affects me directly.

I'm one of the many who will have to part with the estimated R550 that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has pegged as the maximum monthly cost of using the e-tolls.

I employ people to provide some household services, like gardening, pool maintenance and housekeeping.

With e-tolling now included in our household budget we really have to juggle our expenses to ensure that we continue to pay the employees a minimum wage to cover the rising cost of petrol and also budget for the expected increase in food prices.

The easiest option, some might argue, would be to fire some of my employees - and swell the ranks of the unemployment.

There are many others like me - who are not part of "the spoiled rich who want to talk on their cellphones and not pay for the services the government provides" but hard-working individuals who survive by the sweat of their brow.

Many of these either took part in last Wednesday march or are sympathetic with those who marched to raise their concerns about the effect of these e-tolls and the manner in which the government is trying to ram the whole system down their throats.

They are unhappy that in its intransigence the government seems hellbent on ignoring any proposed solution (including the ring fencing of the fuel levy for the maintenance of the toll-roads) to alleviate the pain the system will inflict on them.

That is why I joined last week's protest march organised by Cosatu. I intend to join any others to come.