E-toll disaster even bigger than initially thought

Correct me if I'm wrong but they made R66 million last month which equated to a 6 million rand loss. WTF kind of expenses they have
that cost R72 million rand per month?
 
Necropolis said:
There will most likely be penalties - but they most certainly can walk away from the contracts.
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Oh there will be escape clauses, but I doubt they're usable in an economic sense. I can bet you the e-tolling consortium buried that in bullet proof legalese. The penalty will at a minimum be 20 billion (the debt owed) plus interest, plus whatever profit they would have made (which in turn would be based on the initial rosy projections). It would likely also tank the road maintenance contracts and you'd lose the couple of million pm that are actually being collected.

The other reason I'm confident that it's not feasible is the fact that the ANC is sticking to its guns on this despite them losing the thing they care about above all else - votes. That tells me they've dug themselves into a hole here deep enough that a couple billion penalty isn't going to cut it.
 
skimread said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but they made R66 million last month which equated to a 6 million rand loss. WTF kind of expenses they have
that cost R72 million rand per month?
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Interest on 30bn worth of funding?
 
skimread said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but they made R66 million last month which equated to a 6 million rand loss. WTF kind of expenses they have
that cost R72 million rand per month?
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They also guaranteed Kapsch a minimum income of a couple million a month, regardless of payments received. Cannot recall the figure but R40m comes to mind.
 
Nerfherder said:
Speed traps, billboards, traffic flow monitors, traffic information boards, car tracking for police.

Really stupid that they didn't implement those things anyway.
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And spend some of the party/car/corruption money on something other than themselves? Never.

100% etoll free. And all you ***** that paid made this a longer drawn out process. Now the penalties are higher.
We the system that already exists, to pay the debt directly. Not via the Circus.
 
Neoprod said:
I think it's worth the short-term hit to avoid being milked for life. Also the knock-on effect with regards to delaying \ cancelling any other user-pays (rather than general tax) infrastructure projects the government may have had in mind.
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I agree.
This whole débâcle is going to cost the Taxpayer Billions for years to come. Who knows what contractual obligations there are between the South African Government (SANRAL) and the overseas partners. Without a doubt the foreign "investors" would have made sure the contract is favourable to them, especially considering that the deal is with a Government who has endless amounts of Taxpapers money to pay them in penalties and lost revenue potential.

It makes me ill to think of what other contractual obligations we have with all sorts of shady deals that indirectly you and I are responsible for.

Then project what a Trillion Rand contract would cost South Africa with our unproductive militant labour force and 30% hanger ons who would be involved in each and every deal that gets put on the table. The "30 percenters" are going to signing this country into debt for generations to come.
They are going to screw this country into the ground and then blame the white ou.
 
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HavocXphere said:
The other reason I'm confident that it's not feasible is the fact that the ANC is sticking to its guns on this despite them losing the thing they care about above all else - votes. That tells me they've dug themselves into a hole here deep enough that a couple billion penalty isn't going to cut it.
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Ja nee, they wouldn't/don't/won't admit they done goofed.



@Struggle credentials, rofl
 
SA income tax payer - the biggest loser.

SARS should compel us to spend income tax at Vegas. At least we could have a good time while watching our money go down the drain.
 
Kapsch was probably the biggest gainer in this situation, and it is likely them that is applying serious pressure to SANRAL.
 
Ho3n3r said:
Who do you think will appoint these "inquirers"?

Hint: ANC
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Sure, but if there is enough pressure and the right team is put in place to do the investigation we can have a solid legal reason to drop the contracts and claim reparations from Kaapsch etc. The ANC may be willing to burn a few comrades to stay the course, ask the former Police Chief for example. Even if they get cushy sentences that aren't fully enforced the benefit of us getting out of the debt to companies like Kaapsch will not only save the taxpayer billions, but also make any other international company wanting to pull a fast one in this line think twice before actually going ahead.

Two birds on this one for us then.
 
Bern said:
Sure, but if there is enough pressure and the right team is put in place to do the investigation we can have a solid legal reason to drop the contracts and claim reparations from Kaapsch etc.
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I've met some of the people (peripherally) involved on the e-toll consortium side...while much disliked by the public they're definitely sharp okes & they'll definitely do everything 100% by the book as far as the contracts go. They'd be stupid not to.

The only options as I see them are 1) limp along at current pace 2) settle for an outrageous penalty 3) dishonour the contract

3 is a non-option...2 as I said is likely prohibitive from a numbers perspective so they're going with 1 but from lack of alternatives & indecision.

There is only really one solution...gov needs to stop signing bad contracts. Because once you sign its game over.
 
Smart people do make mistakes and lapses of judgement, especially if they were given the carrot approach
 
I honestly would love to know where the figures touted actually come from...
 
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