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Opinionista

No e-tolls for other provinces? More smoke and mirrors from SANRAL

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Wayne Duvenage is a businessman and entrepreneur turned civil activist. Following former positions as CEO of AVIS and President of SA Vehicle Renting and Leasing Association, Duvenage has headed the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse since its inception in 2012.

In the same way that Gauteng’s urban freeways were declared ‘payways’ by stealth, it seems that SANRAL is now trying to introduce e-tolling to existing toll roads in the KZN and Western Cape by the same tactic. In 2007 the looming reality of the FIFA World Cup was used to mask the e-toll declaration, as the authorities sneaked the scheme into being without society noticing. When will SANRAL get the message that their assurances are simply not trusted?

There is no doubt that SANRAL’s failed implementation of the e-toll scheme in Gauteng has put paid to the future of free-flowing e-tolling schemes, minus booms, in the rest of the country. This, however, does not seem to have deterred their revised plan to roll out electronic tolling systems at all ‘boom-down’ traditional toll plazas throughout the country, the likes of which will be pushed closer and deeper into urban environments. The trick up SANRAL’s sleeve, however, is to drive the uptake of e-tags by other means.

Just as toll plaza erections in peripheral urban zones have taken root at the Stormvoel off-ramp (Pretoria) on the Bakwena route, so SANRAL will attempt to use the same strategy to fund urban freeway upgrades in and around other urban areas of the country. The Western Cape toll-road project is next on their radar screen, if indeed they are allowed to get away with their secretive ‘unsolicited bid’ tactics employed there.

Initially, these new peripheral urban toll plazas will have a couple of e-tag lanes – as is the case at the Stormvoel toll plaza – and the congestion created at the cash/pay booths will have the ‘push-effect’ to coerce motorists to tag up for the ‘open’ lanes. As e-tag penetration increases, so more e-tag lanes will be opened up, edging SANRAL toward a sizable e-tag ratio, thus enabling opportunities to slip the e-tag scheme into more surrounding urban areas. A very clever and rather sneaky tactic indeed, and what’s more, the public won’t even notice this happening over time.

The real question, however, is this: why are we allowing SANRAL to introduce tolling for the development and upgrading of socio-economic infrastructure in and around urban areas? And why is SANRAL accepting ‘unsolicited bids’ to upgrade urban freeway routes? Surely these critical urban roads should be developed and maintained through pre-planned projects and funds provided by treasury’s tax receipts? Efficient social infrastructure and integrated public transport systems allow for efficient commuting of society to and from places of work, sport, worship, schools, etc. – precisely the benefits expected by a tax-paying public.

A further question and debate surrounds the fact that capital costs of almost all the long-distance tolled routes have been paid up, many of them decades ago, yet toll tariffs never reduce to levels required for maintenance purposes only. In 1998, SANRAL attained amendments to the SANRAL Act – virtually unnoticed – which allows toll revenues generated on one route to be used to fund other projects. This goes entirely against their “user pays” argument and has raised other questions about why this is so. What’s more, the amended Act also relieved SANRAL of their prior obligations to maintain the alternative (free) routes which run parallel to the tolled roads, leaving many of them potholed, damaged and often impassable. Travel and tourism in many rural areas has been negatively impacted by these damaged alternative routes, holding motorists captive to the high-profit tolled roads. Today’s toll plaza tariffs along most routes are regarded as grossly excessive and are drawing out the ire of motorists and residents who reside close to their locations.

The time has come for a cessation of SANRAL’s hostilities and lack of transparency toward their critics and the public at large. Truth appears to have become the casualty as we watch institution after institution taking up a host of challenges against SANRAL’s activities. While the terminally ill e-toll system nears the end of its very short life, one wonders if SANRAL will ever learn that the roads they seek to build and maintain belong to society, the same people who must be given fair access all information and allowed to challenge their plans openly. Securing a lasting and transparent peace with the public has become the new imperative. That, however, can only happen if there is a fundamental shift in the manner in which SANRAL engages with society. DM

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