Cape Town - The South African National Roads Agency Ltd has come under intense fire from the Cape Chamber of Commerce for offering a R48 billion revenue stream to the consortium awarded the R10bn contract for the Winelands toll project in 2011.
And the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) has, in an open letter to Sanral board members, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, called for “tough action” against Sanral’s chief executive, Nazir Alli, for his alleged lack of transparency.
The gloves have come off after a Supreme Court of Appeal ruling lifted the lid on the details of the proposed N1 and N2 toll road project, including information about the tender awarded to Protea Parkways Consortium (PPC).
According to court papers, which can now be made public, PPC’s anticipated toll revenue over the concession period, at 2010 values excluding VAT, is about R48bn.
It was also suggested the toll tariffs would be three times higher than those charged by the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project.
“This week’s disclosures are so disturbing that we now need to take a deeper look at all Sanral contracts going back to 1994,” said Peter Hugo, chairman of the Chamber’s transport portfolio committee.
“When you open one can and find worms in it, you should open all the others to make sure the whole batch is not contaminated.”
Hugo said the Chamber wanted to know how many other Sanral contracts included provision for Sanral to pay compensation if the toll fees did not provide enough revenue.
Meanwhile, Outa’s Wayne Duvenage said the court papers showed that Alli had declared the Western Cape roads as toll roads without a formal resolution from Sanral’s board.
“We have no desire to see another state-owned enterprise slip more deeply into crisis. Prompt and decisive action is required. We believe the authorities need to urgently deal with Sanral’s leadership issues, in order to turn Sanral around, before it is too late, so that it can once again discharge its public mandate with greater efficiency.”
He referred to the recent allegations that Sanral submitted false affidavits to show support for its N2 Wild Coast Toll Road.
Duvenage said there was, however, more at stake than Sanral’s credibility. The Supreme Court of Appeal ruling had highlighted the importance of public accountability. Outa wanted to publicly call for Alli’s immediate retirement so that a proposed social audit of Sanral’s performance measured against principles of the constitution could “proceed without his interference”.
But Alli has hit back, saying the toll tariffs for the Winelands project have not been finalised and that reports that PPC would make a R48bn profit were “simply not true”.
The only toll road project with a traffic and revenue guarantee was the Chapman’s Peak project, and statements about a “guarantee” to the concessionaire for the Winelands project were incorrect.
Alli also accused the city council of failing to launch its review against the process within the legislated time period, “irresponsibly jeopardising” the tender process and delaying necessary upgrades to the road.
Cape Argus