Some complaints are genuine, admits Sanral

Spokesperson Vusi Mona told the newspaper there had been some "genuine" complaints about the system.

"There are genuine customer complaints. There is no system that is foolproof and 100% correct."

He said there were not a large number of such complaints, however, and those complaints lodged with consumer satisfaction website Hellopeter.com were being handled by Sanral's public relations department.

Mona said the agency had acquired motorists' cellphone numbers legally through the Electronic National Administration Traffic Information System (eNatis).

"We are not breaking any laws or violating people's privacy," he said.