The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) has called on the newly established Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) task team, led by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, to launch an independent investigation into all contracts and concessions relating to the project’s construction and its subsequent tolling by the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral).

The Outa chairperson Wayne Duvenage said on Monday that, while they welcomed the formation of a Ministerial committee to deal with the GFIP’s e-tolling, the appointment of a high-powered independent investigation and inquiry was the best route to achieve “absolute sincerity without prejudice”.

He added that many unanswered questions relating to Sanral’s deals in the project needed to be investigated.

Two days before Sanral’s e-toll system was expected to be implemented, the High Court put the e-toll system on hold indefinitely while a full court review was carried out.

The Ministerial committee, which comprised the Transport, Finance and Public Enterprises Ministers, as well as the director general in the Presidency, was established last week to coordinate all work surrounding the GFIP. The team was tasked with, besides others, meeting stakeholders to find constructive solutions and consensus to the e-toll debate, as well as “moving rapidly” to ensure that Sanral’s financial stability was not affected.

However, subsequent to the court ruling, Moody's Investors Service downgraded Sanral’s global-scale, local and foreign currency issuer ratings from Baa1/P-2 to Baa2/P-3, and its South African national-scale issuer ratings from Aa3.za/P-1.za to A2.za/P-2.za, saying the delay in implementing e-tolling in Gauteng caused concerns over the road agency’s medium-term financial sustainability.

Business Unity South Africa (Busa) said that it welcomed the formation of the task team, adding that it created an important mechanism in tackling the outstanding challenges of the e-toll system in its totality.

“The committee’s enquiry would also be wise to extend its investigation to include the Wild Coast Consortium, N2 Wild Coast Toll road,” added Duvenage.

However, Busa and the Outa both hoped the committee would seek input and accept submissions from stakeholders to ensure all issues are raised and investigated, particularly on the significant cost, regulatory and financing components of the e-toll system.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said it expected the committee to work closely with the joint African National Congress/Cosatu task team, which has been researching alternative models for funding road construction and improvements.

“We are confident that it will find a more equitable and efficient model than e-tolling, which has become so discredited, unpopular and impractical,” the trade union federation said.

Meanwhile, the National Treasury on Monday said that it would not discuss or clarify the issues surrounding the GFIP and Sanral during the Parliamentary meetings prior to the second leg of the court hearings in the e-tolling case.

“Any comment by the National Treasury officials on the GFIP issue would neither be prudent nor appropriate. We would ask all South Africans to exercise patience,” the National Treasury said in a statement.