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‘Do not question SA’s judicial system’ – Alli

‘Do not question SA’s judicial system’ – Alli
Photo by Duane Daws

21st August 2014

By: Natasha Odendaal
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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As the public battle over the tolling of Gauteng’s highways continued, with users refusing to pay their bills and the Gauteng Provincial Government reviewing the system, South Africa National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) CEO Nazir Alli appealed to South Africans to respect the judicial system that saw the agency win six court cases in recent months.

Sanral had faced several court battles, including two constitutional court cases – the most notable against the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) – since the implementation of the contested electronic collection of fees for the use of the roads under the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP).

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The outcomes of these court cases, with the judgments always in Sanral’s favour, showed that government’s policy of the user-pay principle was solid, and questioning the country’s judicial system and integrity was an “extremely slippery slope”, Alli asserted at the South African Shippers Council inaugural “speed coffee” session, in Midrand, on Thursday.

The user-pay principle had been tested in courts as a legitimate and fair instrument for government to fund the building, upgrading and general maintenance of road infrastructure as envisaged in the 1996 White Paper on Transport and the National Development Plan (NDP).

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“We need to accept the judgments,” he said, stating that the move to toll the GFIP was in line with the NDP, which was supported by 93% of South Africans.

“We are not using the user-pay instrument [haphazardly or carelessly] – we are selective,” he stressed, pointing out that it was “impossible” for government to fund the entire road network.

Alli noted that South Africa had the tenth-largest road network in the world, with nearly 735 000 km of road, and had ranked among the top 20 for its scale of surfaced roads at 153 000 km.

Sanral was responsible for 21 400 km of the road network – a drastic rise on the 6 800 km when it was established in 1998.

With the ageing road network and a large portion – at 132 000 km – underserviced, particularly in rural regions and townships, a balance in funding the roads needed to be found. For road maintenance alone, South Africa had a backlog of R150-billion.

To mitigate some of the challenges, Sanral implemented the user-pay principle on 201 km of Gauteng’s highways.

The improvement of the remaining 360 km targeted in Gauteng had been delayed in the face of extensive resistance, funding and court battles. A road network expansion and the building of new roads had also been temporarily halted.

Currently, only 15%, or 3 128 km, of Sanral's network was tolled, with the remaining 85% funded by government.

“Funding is the elephant in the room,” he said, adding that Sanral needed to find “means and ways” of funding growth, including the issue of bonds, which had a limit set by the Finance and Transport Ministers.

“We can not just borrow what we want. If we keep on borrowing more than we should, the debt will overrun,” Alli explained, adding that a redirection of the billions of rands of subsidies allocated within the transport sector into Sanral would aide the company.

Any revenue from e-tolling was only allowed to be used on the tolled roads and, to generate more funding for its network from National Treasury, the agency would need to move people off the roads and onto public transport, particularly thr Gautrain and bus rapid transport systems, which received a subsidy until it met certain ridership levels.

Meanwhile, he argued that adding the toll fees to the fuel levy would not impact congestion levels, citing studies reviewing the rise and fall of the fuel price had not led to volatility in the volumes of cars on the roads.

The current fuel levy generated less than 50% of the budget required to maintain South Africa’s roads, and with the ever-increasing fuel efficiency of vehicles, it would not generate the funds required going forward.

The introduction of a fuel levy, as opposed to the electronic toll collection, would also likely add more than R300-million a year to transporters’ costs, which would be passed on to the consumer.

“A fuel levy is not the way to go,” he said, adding that one cannot “price” a shift in people’s behaviours.

However, the company was doing “better than predicted” on the GFIP e-tolling.

This despite Transport Minister Dipuo Peters saying earlier this month that unregistered motorists in Gauteng owe more than R1-billion in unpaid e-toll accounts, and that there were only just over one-million registered and active accounts identified on the network as at May 31.

On Tuesday, Outa chairperson Wayne Duvenage said any user-pay project where less than half the users pay was a failure. He noted that “a maximum of 40%” of vehicles on Gauteng’s highways had e-tags – a figure that was declining.

Alli commented that the ratio of users failing to pay varied depending on whether Sanral was in court or if a politician “made a noise”.

An e-toll review panel, established by Gauteng Premier David Makhuru earlier this year, was already reviewing the socioeconomic impact of the e-tolls in the province, with a final report and recommendations expected in November.

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