Johannesburg - The Organisation for Undoing Tax Abuses has welcomed the acknowledgment by Gauteng premier David Makhura in his State of the Province address on Monday that e-tolls have failed, and have added to the cost of living for many motorists and public transport users.
Outa portfolio manager for transport Rudie Heyneke said the organisation supported Makhura’s call for better funding for Gauteng’s road network, and welcomed his promise to engage President Cyril Ramaphosa to find “a new and more equitable funding model”.
According to Sanral’s own figures in its 2017 annual report, the compliance rate for e-toll users is 29 percent - a clear admission that after more than four years Sanral cannot make the system work.
Makhura said: “The new dawn must also bring a solution to the protracted and unresolved problem of e-tolls”, and Outa says it will support all initiatives to get the scheme halted.
'Sanral will never be able to catch up'
“We are preparing a submission for the minister of transport and the president,” Heyneke said, “and will engage with the executive to show the negative impact e-tolls have had on the public, and on Sanral’s budget, and to propose alternative funding models.
“The collection costs and litigation costs are too high when measured against the revenue generated by e-tolls.”
Sanral will never be able to catch up on collecting outstanding e-toll fees, he said, and with compliance of only 29 percent, the agency is SANRAL is losing millions of rand every day.
“Gauteng motorists have shown the government they’re not willing to fund a scheme that was was introduced without sufficient public participation and was doomed from the start.
“It’s time to find a better way, as the premier says.”