“However, we seek clarity on the statement which appears to have shed more confusion on the matter,” says Outa’s chairperson, Wayne Duvenage.
Vadi suggested that E-tolls should be replaced by more efficient user pays mechanisms, such as a “regional, or national, fuel levy, a provincial tax or shadow tolling”.
Outa largely agrees with these views, as each of these alternatives attracts virtually zero administration costs and have high, if not 100 per cent compliance levels.
“The E-toll scheme on the other hand, comes at a huge administration cost (over R1.3-billion per annum) and will never achieve high compliance, as Sanral is now learning some six months after launching the scheme.
“If indeed the scheme is questionable and regarded as ineffective, then it goes without saying that the entire scheme should be set aside until a more efficient and equitable solution is found, and not just for future road upgrade plans.
“We trust that Cosatu’s request this week for President Zuma to call off the E-toll scheme ‘privatisation of our public highways’ in his State of the Nation Address, will be heeded accordingly.”
Outa has updated its E-tag count on vehicles last week and maintains less than 40 per cent of vehicles are tagged.
This suggests that Sanral’s recent discount has not produced the uptake they had hoped for, sending an even louder message that the public at large were not going to be duped or enticed into the irrational scheme.
If one extrapolates the R550-million outstanding E-toll debt amounted by February 28, Outa estimates this figure to have now climbed to approximately R1-bn.
Outa continues to encounter a stream of public and businesses concerns about how the cost of E-tolls will push them into a negative cash situation.
“In essence, the tolling of social and economic infrastructure is becoming detrimental to the well-being of this country’s economic hub and with our nation’s recent credit rating down-grades; we can ill afford to allow the E-toll fiasco to continue to make matters worse.
“We have far more important nation building issues to grapple, alongside matters of road safety, an integrated public transport plan and the taxi industry’s compliance to permit regulations.”
Outa believes that Sanral is preparing to issue summons to a few freeway users for non E-toll payment in the next month or two, in an attempt to scare the public into E-tag compliance.
“If indeed Sanral has plans to criminalise the public for the non-payment of a questionable and irrational scheme, we believe this will have significant unintended consequences along with a negative backlash by society, something our country can ill afford at this sensitive stage of our economic development,” says Duvenage. – @CarmenBoksburg
