1,4 million e-tags unsold

UPDATE: 20 November, 3.20pm:

According to media reports, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters revealed that the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) had not sold the majority of the e-tags that the agency had invested in for e-tolling.

Times Live reported that in a written response to a parliamentary question, the minister wrote, “Sanral procured 2 107 000 e-tags over the past three years; [a total of] 1 427 900 have not been allocated.”

This implied that only 679 100 e-tags had been sold.

During the minister’s announcement on 20 November that e-tolling would go live in December, she said that the government had made several concessions to minimise the financial burden on motorists who would be using the Gauteng e-tolled road network.

She said that e-toll tariffs had been reduced and registered public transport exempted.

“We have moved from 66 cents per kilometre to the current 30 cents for light motor vehicles for registered road users who are in possession of an e-tag,” Peters said.

UPDATE: 20 November, 2pm:

The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) welcomed the announcement by the Minister of Transport that tolling on the Gauteng Freeway will begin on 3 December.

“This is good news. Sanral can now get on with its business to build, maintain and improve South Africa’s national road network,” said the agency’s CEO Nazir Alli.

He said the agency could now service the debt it had incurred to upgrade the road.

“The tolling system is up and running at the moment and we therefore expect a smooth beginning to actually collecting tolls on the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP). It is important to note that of the more than 700 000 kilometres of roads in the country, only 19 704 are part of the national network and thus Sanral’s responsibility,”said Alli.

He added that, “Of the latter, only 16 percent are tolled – some 3 120 kilometres. Of the tolled roads, only 201 kilometres form part of the GFIP. The figures are important to keep a proper perspective.”

Further encouraging motorists to buy e-tags, Alli said, “It is the right thing to do and also easier and cheaper than using the roads without a tag.”

UPDATE: 20 November, 1.30pm

When news broke that e-tolling was going live, members of the public took to social media to vent their frustrations.

Twitter became a hotbed of anger as tweets began to flow regarding the announcement.

“20 November will go down in history as the day the government ignored the people #sayNOtoetolls #sies @DipuoPeters @ismailvadi” tweeted LeadSA’s Yusuf Abramjee

@wirRelesS_g tweeted: “Is it safe to say #etolls have cost the ANC the province?”

While @Keitu_Tsotetsi said, “People are generally resistant to change. The fact that they failed to involve the people when making this decision makes it worse #Etolls”

@Pasco_e was vocal in his opinion and stated, “Sanral and Dipuo Peters have been smoking grass lately. They are confident that GP motorist will buy e-tags for the bloody ANC eTolls.”
And @Makalouso tweeted: : Did the transport minister really blame apartheid for etolls?! WTF?! Smfh”

On Facebook Roanna Jagga stated: “But they’ll vote them in again!!! I refuse to buy a tag. I pay enough tax!”

Stephen Webber was of the opinion that waiting to launch (e-tolling) until after the elections would have been better for the ANC.

The Facebook page 1 Million Motorists Refuse to Pay Etolls put up this statement on their page:

“3 December has been declared as the official switch on of the e-toll system. THIS is where the excrement is about to make contact with the rotary air circulating mechanism! We have just shy of 80 000 people on our page pledging to NOT pay the e-tolls. Share this with all your friends and let’s try to get over the 100 000 mark before they switch on!”

The page has been steadily gaining ‘likes’ ever since and is currently more than 80 000.

UPDATE: 20 November, 12.30pm:

Motorists without e-tags will not benefit from discounts and will pay double the amount on the freeways said Transport Minister Dipuo Peters.

“Sanral should be allowed to start collecting toll fees in order to begin to repay the debt incurred when the roads were upgraded,” she said.

“We cannot afford to continue to expose Sanral’s portfolio to any further financial risks…”

According to Peters electronic tolling would contribute to the fight against licence plate cloning and would reduce congestion, she said.

Sanral CEO Nazir Alli said a debt collection process had started and motorists would receive a bill every seven days. If they repeatedly failed to pay, they will receive a summons.

According to Peters Gauteng motorists have been enjoying the convenience of driving on world-class roads since the first phase of the project was completed. As a result of ‘high-tech’travel as system was introduced to ensure constant monitoring of traffic on the e-tolled network.

“The system ensures that officials manning traffic flows from the operations centre in Samrand are able to pick up incidents such as car breakdowns and crashes as and when they occur,” she said.

Sanral had also introduced the “golden hour” service where emergency vehicles located at various spots on the highways were ready to respond to incidents.

“This assists in preventing traffic jams and secondary crashes.”

UPDATE: 20 November 11.15 am:

Wayne Duvenage, chairperson of the Opposition To Urban Tolling Alliance (OUTA) told eNCA that there are much more efficient ways to fund roads.

“It is not a legal requirement to have an e-tolls tag. You do not have to get a tag. There are hundreds of thousands that refuse to pay for the use of roads,” he said.

“If Sanral believes they can manage this process they have another thing coming.”

He said one should imagine what would happen if 10% of the road users, for example, do not pay their bills.

“How will the courts cope? And you can’t punish selectively,” he said.

“The whole thing should be brought to a halt, government should find a publically acceptable way to fund the roads,” he said.

“The legal challenges are by far nowhere near over.”

He said Outa is not against the roads, but feels the government should find the best way to fund them.

“Needing R1.5bn to administer the system makes it an absolute farce,” he said.

Zwelinzima Vavi echoed this sentiment saying: “Our call to everybody is: Let’s resist. Let’s unite. Let’s refuse to pay. Let’s see if government has capacity.”

Meanwhile Nazir Alli, CEO of the South African National Roads Agency stated that SANRAL would not be any law enforcement on the roads. “That is up to the Authorities.”

20 November, 11am:

Despite fierce resistance to Gauteng’s e-tolling system,the system will go live on 3 December.

Furthermore, more gantries are expected to be erected in the province, the Democratic Alliance said.

Mmusi Maimane, Democratic Alliance provincial spokesperson said the existing gantries were only the first phase of e-tolling, adding that SA National Roads Agency planned to put up more gantries and extend e-tolling.

Maimane said, “It is expected that at least 300km of the province’s highways will be tolled in Phase 2 of the project. It is likely that this will be pushed through in the same manner as the existing phase without proper consultation and at great expense.”

Maimane assured the public that his party would continue its fight against e-tolling and encouraged them to exercise their vote in the coming election against the user-pay system.

“I encourage everyone to take their opposition to the ballot box next year and vote out the government that is bringing you e-tolling,” he said.

Earlier in November, the Democratic Alliance announced that it was taking legal action to challenge the constitutionality of the e-tolling.

This came after Opposition To Urban Tolling Alliance gave up on its legal battle against e-tolling.

Meanwhile, Cosatu, the Economic Freedom Fighters and the Freedom Front + have protested and handed over memorandums against e-tolling.