Defend Truth

Opinionista

If you are, why are you still paying for e-tolls?

mm

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.

Ten months since SANRAL's e-toll scheme was turned on, there is no semblance of a successful ‘user pays’ scheme in place, which by now ought to have achieved a compliance level at well over 80% and be meeting almost all of its revenue targets. It should by now have ironed out the billing glitches and have virtually all motorists’ details correctly loaded in the system. They should have also been well into the process of prosecuting the ‘pay-nots’, to quell any rising tide of defiance.

Instead, we have the very opposite in place. Less than half the freeway users are paying, and a growing number of those who were paying, are now de-tagging out of frustration with ongoing billing errors and onerous conditions to keep their accounts paid up. These de-tagging decisions are further fuelled by the fact that those who are paying are part of the minority, whilst most freeway users continue to ignore their bills, if indeed they ever received them.

Those who continue to pay their e-toll bills have every right to ask why they do so, when all the signs point to SANRAL’s seeming acceptance of their lost cause, a battle which they once fought so hard for. Pray, tell what prompts such a glaring statement? I hear you ask. Well, consider the below:

  • Firstly, it is not the Post Office strike that has dried up the e-toll bills being sent to the defiant million-plus Gauteng motorists. SANRAL appears to have come to their senses and have realised they have merely reduced the sale of firelighter fuel on the Highveld, with their invoices being used to ignite many a weekend barbecue.
  • The ever-present e-toll caravans at the Gauteng Community Safety Services road-blocks have all but disappeared over the past few weeks.
  • SANRAL’s massive advertising and PR campaign to convince citizens that ‘all is on track and e-tag sales are soaring’ has dried up.
  • In June this year, the Minister of Transport announced several reprieves, whereby payment conditions were extended from seven to 50 days, and that many road users could now enjoy the benefits of the discounted e-tagged tariff if they came on board. This announcement never triggered the desired effect of motorists rushing off to buy tags and as such, the Department of Transport has not even bothered to gazette the tariff amendment. Neither have the staff manning the e-toll customer service centres been trained to implement the changes accordingly.
  • The prosecution of defaulters has been called off or shelved, most likely after SANRAL realised that any attempt to criminalise their honest and hardworking citizens for non-payment of e-tolls would be a futile exercise with massive negative unintended consequences, along with a strong chance of summonses being defeated in court.

And so it appears the penny has finally dropped for SANRAL, who now must know they will never change the minds of the estimated 1,5 million defiant Gauteng motorists on e-tolling. Their idle threats of criminal records have not resulted in a lamb-like convergence to the e-tag slaughterhouse. Could it also be they now acknowledge their billing nightmare, fuelled by the inaccurate eNatis database, will never abate? Maybe they’ve even come to accept that the court of public opinion has trounced the court of law ruling.

Perhaps, just perhaps, they have conceded to OUTA’s claims of an unworkable system, compounded by number plate cloning and numerous other inefficiencies that have culminated in the predicted reality of a failed system – failed in that it will simply never achieve even half the R260 million monthly target required to finance the bonds, administration and other costs.

The content, reasoning and rationale expressed by organisations and the public at the Gauteng e-toll Advisory Panel hearings have been exemplary, to say the least. Barring less than one percent of those in favour of e-tolls, these submissions have sent a clear message to the panel that the e-toll scheme will not be tolerated or supported. More concerning for the ruling party, if they were listening, must be the incessant wave of statements from person after person, calling for the system to be scrapped or face another crippling reduction of support at the forthcoming local elections, some 20 months hence.

The Minister of Transport’s recent announcement that, no matter the content of the Gauteng Advisory Panel’s report, their e-toll decision for phase one of GFIP will not be amended, was, for all intents and purposes, a futile one to make. Realistically, the authorities will never be able to ignore the Panel’s findings. Minister Peters may claim that e-Tolls are here to stay, but in reality, they aren’t. The gantries may be in place and the purple lights might be burning, but attendance at their e-toll party has been paltry and the few that have arrived are leaving early. Simply put, the system will not meet its objectives and therefore it HAS failed.

Could it be that the only reason why the authorities keep the system ticking over is to satisfy the benefactors and supplier companies that are still feeding off the R90 million or so monthly revenue stream for as long as they can? The grossly underperforming e-toll income is, by the way, largely funded from government fleets (taxpayers’ money) and corporate organisations, who merely pass the costs on to the public. The real losers are the several thousand individuals and families who continue to pay their e-toll bills.

So if indeed you are one of the minority still feeding the defunct e-toll machine, by now you must surely be asking yourself: why? Why me, when the rest of society isn’t paying, and never will? DM

Gallery

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

Become a Maverick Insider

This could have been a paywall

On another site this would have been a paywall. Maverick Insider keeps our content free for all.

Become an Insider

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.