A battle royal is looming over the tolling of the two highways that link Cape Town to the rest of the Western Cape and the country.
The City of Cape Town has already applied for an interim interdict to stop the SA National Roads Agency Limited from implementing proposed tolls on the N1 and N2, which will cost R10 billion.
If Sanral has its way, as the graphic at right shows:
The N2 will be tolled from the R300, and the N1 from Old Oak Road, just west of the R300.
The N1 stretch will end just after Worcester.
The N2 toll road will end at Bot River.
The Huguenot Tunnel will be taken into the new tolling plan.
On Tuesday Sanral named its preferred bidder for the N1-N2 Winelands highway toll project, despite the city's legal challenge over the project.
It said it had selected Protea Parkways Consortium as the preferred bidder. The PPC Consortium, it said, comprised a variety of private investors and partners to the South African government and included a team of “highly qualified contractors”.
“The estimated project cost as proposed by the preferred bidder is in the order of R10 billion,” Sanral said.
Construction of the 175km project would take about three years.
“The N1/N2 Winelands toll project will increase road capacity, improve safety and offer cost savings in terms of lower vehicle running costs and less time spent on the road.”
The city has, however, applied to the Cape High Court to declare whether there was a dispute with Sanral over the introduction of the toll road.
Although Sanral has not yet set its tariffs, the city believes the proposed tolling is “a disaster” and will cost residents dearly.
Following the city's interdict application in the Western Cape High Court, mayor Patricia de Lille said Sanral had failed to provide the city with projections for the costs of the toll roads and how they would be levied.
She said: “They are so arrogant. They are just steaming ahead with what they want to do.”
In support of its application, the city filed reports from experts specialising in socio-economic impact assessments and road transport.
Mayoral committee member for transport, roads and storm water, Brett Herron, said that apart from the added burden to ratepayers, these reports showed a negative effect on fruit producers.
Professor Jonathan Bloom of Stellenbosch University's corporate finance department predicted that a toll road between De Doorns and Worcester would cost grape producers an extra R5 million a year and add about 30c to the price of a carton of grapes.
De Lille said poorer areas would be hardest hit by the proposed toll roads since apartheid spatial planning had placed them far from the city. She said the city was desperate to “avoid a disaster like what is happening in Gauteng”.
But a Sanral spokesperson said it was a “disappointed” with the city for taking legal action.
“Notwithstanding our contention that there is no dispute between Sanral and the City of Cape Town, we have been fully co-operating with them to amicably resolve the matter through the Inter-Governmental Dispute Resolution mechanism, initiated by the city, without resorting to litigation. Given our co-operation, we are disappointed with the city's recent actions in this matter.”
The agency said the project is set to start mid-2012, with the preferred bidder being Protea Parkways, and initial construction was estimated to take three years.
It said the benefits of the project included alleviating congestion and improving road safety.
It said it had consulted extensively with local farmers, the provincial government and the city.
In response to allegations that the tolls will lead to higher fruit prices, the agency said that according to economic impact assessments, the cost of dry goods being transported from local farms would rise by 31c for each R100 spent. For fresh produce coming from Caledon the costs would rise by up to 0.29 percent.
The agency said traffic levels had been climbing the past few years. Patterns indicated that it would more than double over the next 20 years.
The Gauteng toll road system will cost taxpayers more than the Gautrain. Its costs have soared by R1 billion in a year. It will now cost R2 billion to build the roads.
This brings the full amount of building the roads and toll system, and the toll operating costs for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, to nearly R35 billion over 10 years, R5 billion more than the Gautrain has cost.
Herron said the city believed it had a strong prima facie case that the transport ministry's approval of the toll roads was unconstitutional and unlawful.
Michael Bagraim, the head of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said on Tuesday: “Toll roads are bad news from beginning to end. We've been very anti the toll roads for a variety of reasons. There's a wonderful system which should be used to pay for our roads - it's called income tax.
“Toll roads are a surreptitious attempt to collect more taxes.”
The chamber had set up a sub-committee to deal with the matter, and had engaged trade union federation Cosatu, which “supports us”.
Western Cape Cosatu leader and ANC leader in the city, Tony Ehrenreich, said: “In principle, Cosatu doesn' support the toll roads, especially the private management of these roads by outsourced companies.”
Personally, he did not see a problem with road taxes, but: “Roads are a dedicated facility for people who have cars, so there should be a dedicated tax.”
He added that certain categories of vehicles should not have to pay, such as public transport vehicles.
Provincial transport ministry head Hector Elliot said of the toll plans: “We are backing the city on this. A proper socio-economic study has not been done. How can the socio-economic impact be known if the toll fees are not known?”
Herron said the city had two fundamental problems with the proposed tolls: the cost to citizens and the fact that the city would have to spend hundreds of millions of rand on secondary roads since residents would use these to avoid the toll roads.
The agency has until November 8 to file its answering affidavits. The hearing is scheduled for December 6. - Cape Argus