New E-toll dispensation met with defiance

In reaction, Wayne Duvenage of Outa (Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance) said they are disappointed to hear that government has decided to hold onto the e-toll scheme as the major funding mechanism to settle the GFIP Bonds.

“While government says they have lowered the tariffs, effectively they have not. They have merely removed the punitive tariff, which no-one was paying anyway and if the public were to pay in the past, they would have purchased an e-tag for the same rate of 30c per kilometer,” said Duvenage.

“The reduced cap from R450 to R225 per month only appeals to less that 10 per cent of the motorists, as over 90 per cent of users would not have exceeded that cap in the past anyway. Reducing the outstanding bills by 60 per cent is a carrot the public will not fall for.

“Problem is, the expensive contracts with ETC (Kapsch TrafficCom) remain unchanged and in place. The lower tariffs effectively push up the costs of collection as a percentage of revenue generated to an unacceptable level. 

“For as long as the collection costs related to the Kapsch TrafficCom contracts remain in place, society cannot be expected to support the scheme.

“While the government may think they have resolved their enforcement of the unjust system by linking the payment of e-tolls to the renewal of vehicle licenses, they have overlooked the many other unintended consequences that will arise out of this decision.

“We believe this action will spawn a whole new illegal license discs and number plate industry in South Africa. It will also force many road users to drive unlicensed vehicles. 

“Cars will be licensed in other provinces and several other problems for the vehicle licensing authorities will arise out of this decision, not to mention the reduced license revenues for the region. There is also bound to be a legal challenge mounted against this decision.”

The Justice Project of South Africa has posed on their website that the practice of withholding licence discs because of outstanding traffic fines due to the existence of outstanding traffic fines issued under either the Criminal Procedure or Aarto Act or unpaid e-tolls is unlawful. 

The Project insists that despite multiple claims of late that licence discs are being withheld due to outstanding e-tolls existing against the licensee’s name, this remains unlawful since the legislation governing e-tolls makes no provision for this.

The Automobile Association (AA) believes the new dispensation is an opportunity missed in dealing once and for all with an unnecessarily burdensome funding model for e-tolls. 

“We believe these new measures will add to an increase in traffic on alternative routes in the province, and may also lead to many more unlicensed vehicles as drivers do not renew their licences as they cannot afford to pay outstanding e-toll accounts or simply refuse to do so in protest.

“Another issue is that these proposals may lead to an increase in corruption,” the AA said.

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