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Justice Project South Africa has noted the announcements and claims made by the Minister of Transport and SANRAL today and we are shocked by the spin that is being put on the supposed lowered tariffs.
 
Government gazette 35263 of 13 April 2012 contained the identical tariffs contained in government gazette 35263 of 25 October 2012 (not today).  The comparisons between the 2011 announced tariff of 66c/km now being referred to as being 30c/km discounted rates are misleading since it is in fact 58c/km for class B vehicles (motor cars etc.) and this has not changed at all since Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced this in his budget speech in February 2012.  Similarly, the “capped amount” has not changed since then either.
 
Today it was announced by Minister Martins that “today marks the beginning of a 30 day consultation period”, which is not strictly true given that the 30 day period started yesterday (25 October) and the gazette gives 30 days from publication date for written comments to be submitted, thus leaving 29 days from today for this to happen.
 
The Judicial Review of eTolling is still laid down for 26 November 2012, and as much as Wayne Duvenage from OUTA has said that “no-one can predict its outcome”, it would appear that Cabinet knows something that we don’t with respect to what the outcome will be, before it even comes before the court.  This despite the public having been specifically excluded from having sight of the contract/s between SANRAL and ETC, and even OUTA has not received full disclosure of the contract provided to them, on the premise that the contract contains “Intellectual Property”.
 
In addition we would like to know how the “public consultation process” referred to today now miraculously differs in any way from the previous “consultations” that took place since it is clear that those processes were mere window dressing for a pre-determined outcome and there is nothing to suggest that the latest round will be any different.
 
This having been said, it is our sincere hope that members of the public will take the time to comment on the two government gazette notices issued for comment yesterday.