Johannesburg - The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) has had the last laugh regarding what it has termed a failed e-toll collections system in the province by Sanral.
On Friday, Outa said the admission that Sanral had collected less than 1 percent of the e-toll debt during the first month of its discount dispensation showed the system was dead and buried and Transport Minister Dipuo Peters had to step in and call an end to the charade.
Outa chairman Wayne Duvenage said the discount campaign by Sanral, the SA National Roads Agency Ltd, was a disaster:.
“In our opinion, there is no way the e-toll scheme can recover from this reaction to its latest dispensation.”
Duvenage said the public had spoken and sent a strong message to the government that they would not be coerced, intimidated or fooled into paying these irrational e-toll taxes.
Sanral launched its dispensation campaign at the beginning of last month, offering a 60 percent discount to motorists if they settled their unpaid fees by April. This was implemented in the hope that Sanral would recover the R5.9 billion owed by motorists. It has collected only R40m.
Sanral spokesman Vusi Mona hit back at Outa, labelling it an organisation that had no respect for the judiciary system or democracy.
“Six courts upheld e-tolls as legitimate and the chief magistrate of the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court convicted and sentenced an individual for evading e-tolls,” Mona said.
He said the alliance was focused on breaking down rather than building as it had not offered a viable alternative to combating congestion, addressing spatial legacies of apartheid, creating jobs, or providing on-road services.
Duvenage said Mona’s response indicated that he was out of touch with his organisation’s reality, and the figures provided by its collection agency, the Electronic Tolling Company (ETC).
Outa and others, like the Automobile Association of South Africa, have proposed a fuel levy – estimated to be less than 30c a litre if applied in Gauteng only – to fund the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project.
The man whose prosecution Mona referred to had been charged with defeating the ends of justice by removing his number plates to evade e-tolls.
There had been no single criminal or civil prosecution for failing to pay e-tolls.
Mark Ridgway, the chief operations officer of ETC, said this week that measures were being taken to recover the debt.
He acknowledged that it was uncertain whether ETC would be able to arrange the blocking of a vehicle’s licence renewal because of unpaid e-toll bills.
Saturday Star
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