The South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) said on Wednesday that it had raised R750-million in its first auction for 2011, which was almost three times oversubscribed.

The roads agency, which is implementing the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP), said in a statement that the auction showed the confidence of investors in the toll road programme and the government’s ability to manage debt.

The GFIP’s controversial open-road toll collection system was suspended last month, after a public outcry about the 66c/km toll tariff, set to come into effect on June 23.

Various organisations voiced concerns over the implementation of a tolling system on 185 km of upgraded Gauteng freeways, resulting in a suspension of the gazetted tolling tariffs until further notice.

However, Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele stated at the time that the suspension did not mean a change in the rolling out of the system in June.

Sanral reported that all six bonds that were on offer were issued at market spreads or better.

Three bonds were issued under the guaranteed domestic medium-term note programme while three were nonguaranteed bonds.