Outa’s chairperson, Wayne Duvenage said, “To now suggest the e-toll collections of between R80 million and R90 million for February and March 2016 is a growth of any substance, is a feeble attempt at claiming success when there is none. We’ve seen this behaviour many times before from Sanral as they pump out propaganda in a desperate attempt to convince the public that all is on track for e-toll success.”
Despite last year’s offer of a 60 percent discount on outstanding e-toll bills by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, Duvenage said the public has demonstrated resilience by not falling for this final round of carrots and sticks.
There is now one month left of Sanral’s discount dispensation and Duvenage said the first five months thereof have seen less than R100 million of the R5,9 billion ring-fenced debt collected, which means around 1,5 percent of the dispensation discount offer has been heeded.
He said, “Throughout the first half of 2015, Sanral’s e-toll collections averaged at R65 million per month, which was around half the level of Sanral’s best e-toll revenue record of R120 million in June 2014. Their record month was only achieved after six months of coercive threats of summonses and criminal records and despite this, they failed to collect less than half of the R260 million monthly income, which Sanral frequently espoused as required and attainable, prior to the scheme’s launch.”
Outa also doubted if Sanral’s wish for a last-minute rush to take up their offer will transpire. Duvenage said no doubt there will be a few takers, as can be expected, following a massive marketing campaign and more coercive tactics that will exude from Sanral’s public relations engine throughout April. “Nonetheless, we don’t expect Sanral’s e-toll compliance levels to go much beyond 30 percent, which is a massive failure for any so-called user-pays scheme,” said Duvenage.
He said Sanral’s recent spin suggests that those who oppose the e-toll scheme are the cause of the state-owned entity’s financial woes and credit rating pressures. Duvenage said Sanral’s financial predicament is self-inflicted and they should stop blaming others for a mess which they created.
“Sanral cannot run roughshod over the public with meaningless engagement programmes and excessive collection contracts for an ill-conceived scheme to service the debt of an overpriced freeway upgrade, and expect us to fall for their nonsense,” Duvenage said.
