‘No chance of collecting, which Sanral knows’ – Outa

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) says the government still doesn’t seem to have a grip on the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) finances.

It also did not understand why Gauteng motorists objected to the scheme in the first place, or how to force those objectors to pay their outstanding debts, which Sanral still wants to collect.

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It claimed at a briefing about switching off the gantries, information was “confusing and some key issues were not clarified”.

“Minister [Sindisiwe] Chikunga believes that Gauteng motorists objected to e-tolls because they didn’t really understand the electronic tolling system,” Outa said.

“This statement on its own signifies the minister really has not grasped the fundamental reasons as to why there was wide-scale objection to the scheme.

“The minister emphasised the user must pay for these Gauteng freeway upgrades, but then indicated this toll money was also to be used to fund non-toll roads.

“This is a gross contradiction of the user pays principle of Sanral’s tolling scheme.”

It added there were “many other urban and inter-city freeway upgrades throughout the country that are not subjected to tolling”.

“Where is the consistency in their application of their so-called user pays principle?”

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Outa said despite the minister’s insistence that “motorists are still obligated to pay”, the reality is “the Sanral board decided to stop pursuing the debt by way of filing summonses against e-toll defaulters in March 2019”.

“This was the only mechanism left for them to chase this debt, as all their previous threats, of withholding licences and seeking bad credit ratings, had come to naught. No amount of posting e-toll bills to defaulters has worked to date.”

Wayne Duvenage, Outa chief executive, also asked why, in Sanral’s financial statements, “all past e-toll debts they couldn’t pursue were written off years ago”.

“With no further options for pursuing this debt, the bulk of which has already prescribed, this notion of trying to squeeze unpaid e-toll bills from the wallets of millions of motorists is a fallacy and illusion that Sanral is simply unable to accept.”