The government’s controversial e-tolling plans were the subject of heated exchanges in Parliament in which MPs and ministers accused each other on Tuesday of apartheid-style cover-ups and populist grandstanding on the subject.
In a members’ statement delivered in the National Assembly, IFP finance spokesman Narend Singh accused the government of hiding the fact that billions of rand in state pension money had been invested in the road tolling scheme through the purchase of SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) bonds.
Quoting a report in the The Sunday Independent, Singh said the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) – the government’s investment portfolio manager – had bought R17 billion in Sanral bonds in the past few years.
Almost 90 percent of the PIC’s R495bn investment portfolio – accounting for about 9 percent of the market capitalisation of the JSE – comprises money from the Government Employees Pension Fund.
Singh said these facts revealed the “shocking real reasons” behind the government’s determination to see e-tolling succeed despite widespread public and trade union opposition.
He said the information should have been made available to Parliament’s standing committee on appropriations during its recent deliberations on the R5.7bn allocated in the Budget in additional funding for the Department of Transport to help lower tolls fees.
“One wonders why this was never done. It is now very clear that there are huge economic issues at stake. If the tolling project fails, the government will not only have to bail out Sanral, but will also have to bail out the civil servants’ pension fund,” Singh warned.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan shot back, saying that, “as the honourable member is well aware”, the PIC was mandated to invest in “safe investment instruments”, of which bonds were one example.
“It is regrettable that the honourable Singh is trying to cast sinister connotations on an… investment practice by the PIC. The PIC buys bonds to the tune of billions of rand every week, every year. And these bonds are issued by Transnet, the Development Bank of SA, Eskom and government more generally, including Sanral,” Gordhan said.
He said there had been “no attempt to hide anything” from the appropriations committee and that all Singh needed to have done to get the information was to have asked for it.
“I am sure the officials present (at the committee meeting) would have given you the information. There is no reason for us to hide something that is open, public knowledge.
“The financial formula that we found to solve the problem around the toll road has got nothing to do with bailing out the PIC or anybody, but is a genuine attempt by the government to reduce the (financial) burden on citizens.”
Transport Minister S’bu Ndebele accused Singh of “opportunistically” jumping on the e-tolling “bandwagon”, although he was from KwaZulu-Natal.
“We are going to spend R7.2bn this year to build roads leading to Mr Narend Singh’s home, which doesn’t have roads even though he (has been) in government for such a long time,” Ndebele said.
“We are going to build roads while lowering the burden of debt in Gauteng. But we would not lessen the (debt) burden in Gauteng at the expense of the rest of the country.”
The government has come under pressure from the ANC’s alliance partners – the SACP and Cosatu – over tolling plans.
Cosatu has urged motorists not to buy e-tags, but the provincial government has begun registering its employees and vehicles. - Political Bureau