The 10-year battle of wills between the South African public and the National Road Agency Sanral, which falls under the auspices of the Department of Transport, appears to be over.
On October 26, in his Medium-Term Budget Speech, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana tabled a Bill that will enable the transfer of R23,74bn from National Government to Sanral to pay off government-guaranteed debt. The Bill must now be passed by Parliament. Sanral is also allocated another R3,74bn, moved from non-toll roads to the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP). OUTA noted last week that the R3,74bn was listed in Sanral’s last annual report as having been handed over in July 2022.
Says Wayne Duvenage, CEO of OUTA (the Organisation for Undoing Tax Abuse), which was the loudest, most vociferous, and most persistent opponent of the eTolling system: “This is a clear indication to OUTA that the e-tolling of the Gauteng Freeways will be halted, and the funding mechanism has been shifted to National Treasury and Gauteng Provincial Government allocations, a solution that OUTA proposed to government over a decade ago.”
OUTA’s 10-year battle was fought in court, through official enquiries, across social media, in protests on bridges, outside government offices and through millions of unpaid e-toll bills and the defence by OUTA of thousands of summonses sent by SANRAL to non-payers.
“It was our biggest, longest campaign that ran for over 10 years, supported by thousands of contributing supporters. This is a massive victory for civil society, and OUTA thanks each and every person who stood up against this irrational scheme,” said Duvenage.
“To resolve the funding impasse, the Gauteng provincial government has agreed to contribute 30% to settling SANRAL’s debt and interest obligations, while national government covers 70%,” Minister Godongwana announced in the medium-term budget policy statement on October 27.
“…We believe the Minister will be making an announcement to put paid to the e-toll scheme in the next week or so,” said Duvenage.
The news will come as a relief to the car-rental industry, road transport providers and the tourism industry in general. When the e-tolls system became operational in September 2013, the car-rental industry was up in arms as rentals would have to increase said the then President of the South African Vehicle Rental and Leasing Agency (Savrala), Marc Corcoran, in September 2013.
In certain sectors of tourism too, the extra costs that e-tolls add have been seen as an obstacle from the start. In March 2014, Annareth Bolton, the CEO of Stellenbosch Wine Routes, said the wine producers were concerned about the economic impact of increased travelling costs and of getting stock to the businesses. “The cost of day trips and travel packages will also increase, which is always a concern,” she said at the time. See here.
