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Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage says his organization is still waiting for the government to reveal the way forward with Gauteng’s controversial electronic toll system, after Covid-19 and the national lockdown put potential plans on ice. for the system.
Duvenage told 702 that Outa is ready to make good on its promise to take any legal challenge related to non-payment of toll fees to court, noting that some fleet owners are sitting with electronic toll bills “in the millions of dollars. rands “.
Motorists across the province raised concerns about delays in delivering bills to their homes, showing thousands of rand owed to the South African National Highway Agency (Sanral).
Some believe it is their duty to pay the bills, as withholding the payment will not solve the debt problems linked to the scheme, while others say they refuse to support a system they believe is rooted in corruption, fueling the contracts. inflated that have been signed around the tolls.
Duvenage said that 20% of motorists who are currently paying their electronic toll bills only cover the costs of administering the scheme.
Electronic toll limbo
The status of electronic tolls is up in the air, with politicians dancing on the issue for months, following a decision by the national government to address concerns ‘urgently’ earlier in the year.
In his 2019 medium-term budget statement, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said the system would remain in place, later adding that it cannot be scrapped unless a replacement source of income is found.
However, Gauteng Prime Minister David Makhura had made it clear that the province was moving to get rid of the system.
Between the Ministry of Finance, the provincial government and the Department of Transportation, no government official has given a clear path forward on the matter, despite promises of “imminent” decisions in February 2020, before the crisis hit. of Covid.
In your 2020 National Budget document The Treasury said the controversial toll system was a risk to South Africa’s fiscal prospects.
“Clarity is still needed on the government’s position on the user payment principle when it comes to electronic tolls,” he said. “The decline in electronic toll revenue will have to be offset by other measures to pay off the debt of South African National Roads Agency Limited. It could also affect the financing of other investment projects. “
More recently, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula noted that Sanral’s ability to raise funds from the bond market has been negatively affected by the situation.
Irrational system
According to Duvenage, the only way Gauteng motorists can resolve the matter is by abandoning payments entirely.
Refusing to pay electronic tolls is not about being “anti-payment,” he said, but about being against funding irrational schemes that have zero prospect of working.
“The technology works in many parts of the world. The problem with South Africa is that the public was never consulted for acceptance. You need at least 90% of users to pay for the system to work, which is not happening. “
He said that schemes such as electronic tolls begin to fail when 20% stop paying, without consequences. The 80% who pay get angry and then start to leave the scheme, refusing to subsidize those who get their way without repercussions.
With electronic tolls, the maximum that was paid was 40% of motorists, and currently only 20% pay. Sanral has failed to gain acceptance from motorists through discounts and has not intimidated motorists through subpoenas and threats of blacklisting.
The credit bureaus made it clear in March 2019 that he cannot be blacklisted for failure to pay toll fees, and no successful legal proceedings have been initiated against drivers.
Non-compliance judgments have been issued against motorists who have ignored citations related to non-payment, and Outa has encouraged motorists not to ignore them, but to reach out for help. However, Sanral suspended the issuance of the subpoenas shortly after the credit bureaus intervened.
Outa says he is still waiting for the opportunity to prove the legality of the entire electronic toll system in court. Duvenage reiterated the organization’s position – that electronic tolls were set up illegally and that their continued existence is irrational.
“The whole construction process has corruption written all over it,” he said. “We spent R18 billion on something that should have cost R9 billion.”
He added that Sanral tried to establish the same plan in the Western Cape, and all the courts dismissed it as illegal.
“The only difference between the Western Cape and Gauteng is that (in Gauteng) they had already built the roads and signed all the contracts; the city (of Cape Town) caught it early enough, here in Gauteng they didn’t.”
The head of Outa also pointed out that if the government had adopted his recommendations from the beginning, the roads and debt linked to the system would have been paid for a long time.
Raising the fuel rate by 10 cents in 2008, as Outa suggested, would have financed all the improvements and paid off all the bonds by now, Duvenage said.
Since then, the government has increased the fuel tax by R2.40 and the electronic toll problem persists, he said, further noting that Sanral’s own financial reports show that it expected 34% of its revenue to come from the system. That’s 34% of just 1% of your network.
“It was completely overcharged and there is no way that 90% of road users would have bought it,” he said.
“There are so many things against urban tolls: the 20% who pay do nothing; they only cover administration costs. The faster they disconnect, the faster we can put this to rest, ”he said.
Read: Electronic tolls are costing South Africa in more ways than one: Mbalula
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