[May 2013..Dec 2013] The Gauteng E-tolling Thread

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E-tolling contractor paid R25m a month

Johannesburg - Sanral has to pay the company implementing e-tolling around R25 million a month, even though e-tolling has not yet begun.

At a media briefing on Thursday, Sanral communications manager Vusi Mona and Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) manager Alex van Niekerk explained the agency’s financial situation.

Van Niekerk said Sanral was ready to go ahead with e-tolling and was waiting for President Jacob Zuma to sign the Transport Laws and Related Matters Amendment Bill.

It has been more than two years since e-tolling was first expected to begin in Gauteng. Mona said the agency was cautious about estimating timeliness.

Van Niekerk said that at present they were in a “soft-tolling phase”, which meant that the system was live-testing, but was just waiting for the go-ahead from the president to start sending out invoices.

The project manager said they were paying the contractor - Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) - around R25m a month for services such as maintenance of the system, building costs, taxes, banking fees and employee salaries.

He would not say what the company would receive once e-tolling went live, saying this depended on how many motorists bought e-tags and paid their tolls.

Van Niekerk said they had costed in both extremes - the first is that the project will be smooth sailing and everyone gets an e-tag, and the second is that people do not co-operate and there will be postage, call and debt collection fees.

He said they were ready administratively for both situations. “We have planned to handle the volumes,” Van Niekerk said.

Because e-tolling has been delayed, Sanral has not been able to raise bonds on the open market.

Mona said recent press reports that Sanral was broke were incorrect. This was because 84 percent of the agency was funded by the Treasury and did not consist of toll roads. A large portion of the remaining 16 percent were toll roads owned by concessionaires.

It was the 1 800km of state toll roads that were facing financial shortages.

Mona said the agency needed to raise R1.48 billion to pay off its debts and it was going to approach commercial banks to help it do this.

In the meantime, the agency was halting all tenders and future projects to stop it incurring more debt. Van Niekerk emphasised that road maintenance on tolled roads would continue.

“We are reaching a stage within the next three months when (finances) will become critical,” said Van Niekerk.

Sanral is losing R200m every month that e-tolling does not go ahead.

Van Niekerk said they had to cancel big capital expenditure projects such as upgrades along the N1 north to Beitbridge, a ring road around Polokwane and a ring road near Musina.

He said that until they could raise money on the markets again, they could not go ahead with phase two of the GFIP, which is the building of 150km of highways in Gauteng.

“It will cost R100m for every kilometre built,” he said.

The road travelled so far:

Apr 1998: Gauteng produces document on toll road strategy.

Oct 2007: GFIP launch. Sanral publishes notices of intent to toll on GFIP.

Feb 2008: Transport minister approves GFIP tolling.

May 2008: Sanral awards GFIP contracts.

June 2008: Construction starts on GFIP phase 1.

Sep 2009: Construction of e-toll gantries starts.

Feb 2011: First toll tariffs issued; later transport minister suspends implementation of tolling.

Aug 2011: The cabinet approves new e-toll tariffs.

Oct 2011: Transport minister postpones e-tolling; Sanral says e-tolling will start in February.

Nov 201: Sanral starts e-toll registration.

Jan 2012: Sanral says e-tolling won’t start in February.

Mar 2012: Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance challenges e-tolls.

May 21, 2012: The Treasury and Sanral appeal to Constitutional Court.

Nov 2012: The Pretoria High Court hears a review on e-tolling.

Dec 12, 2012: The court decides e-tolling must go ahead.

Jan 26, 2013: Appeal into the Pretoria High Court’s judgment of e-tolling goes ahead.

[email protected]

The Star
http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-afr...actor-paid-r25m-a-month-1.1555923?utm_medium=[%27facebook%27]&utm_source=dlvr.it
 
ToxicBunny said:
It all depends on the grade of fuel, what the repercussions for not exporting the coal (to balance of payments etc etc etc) would be...

Our economy is too big and complex to look at anything in isolation like this.

I do not disagree that we can probably source our fuel or manufacture it cheaper than we do now, but what are the economic repercussions in areas outside of the fuel industry for doing so.
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You guys are aware that All SASOL fuel is made from coal right?
 
Every time I see an article like this one I am more and more convinced to never get an e-tag. 25 million rand wasted per month which could have been spent on the roads if they had chosen the fuel levy system. That's 300 million rand per year. How many schools / homes can you build for that price?
 
Wyzak said:
. That's 300 million rand per year. How many schools / homes can you build for that price?
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But then the ANC power users can't have easy access to that money... think about them too. :D . ANC fatcats would rather let people live in shacks , throw them fee shirts when voting times come, than actually do something noteworthy for their voters...
 
You can nou register via sms.
Lets all sms FOKETOLL.GP.

By smsing your Vehicle Licence Plate Number to 44004 (our Call Centre will phone back to complete your registration)
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The idiots were given money again. the Radio ads started this morning again.
 
OUTA Rejects e-toll readiness claims

Claims that Sanral has been ready to implement e-tolls for the past two years are false, the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) said on Thursday.

Outa chairman Wayne Duvenage said the SA National Roads Agency Ltd (Sanral) had instead failed itself.

"If Sanral were so efficient and their funding predicament was so serious, why are we still seeing a flurry of legislative amendments taking place over the past year?" he said.

"The regulatory environment forms part of the framework for readiness."

Duvenage said during proceedings at the Constitutional Court last August, Sanral said it could start e-tolling within two weeks of the interdict halting the project being set aside.

"Almost a year has passed, and they are still beating about the bush," he said.

The Democratic Alliance said tolling had not yet started because of government's re-election fears.

"The fact that the tolls have not been implemented indicates the real fear the government has that implementation prior to next year's elections will do irreparable harm to their re-election hopes," DA MPL Neil Campbell said.

On Wednesday, Sanral's toll and traffic manager Alex van Niekerk said the company was approaching several banks in the hope of raising R1.48 billion. The bulk of the amount needed was to service debt on the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP).

"We are reaching the stage, in the next three months, when it will become critical," he said.

E-tolling to fund the project had not yet started, but the monthly cost of the necessary infrastructure amounted to about R25 million.

Sanral's business comprised two portfolios: the non-toll portfolio which accounted for 84 percent, and which was financially healthy. The remaining 16 percent was the toll portfolio component, which included the GFIP.

Sanral was not facing bankruptcy, because only the smaller portfolio had cash flow problems. This had not yet affected Sanral's capacity to maintain other existing toll roads, Van Niekerk said.

He could not say when e-tolling was likely to become a reality.

Earlier, it was reported that the agency had run out of money, with debt totalling R65bn, including interest. The agency reportedly borrowed R20bn from local and foreign investors to fund the GFIP.

Plans to introduce e-tolling on these freeways had encountered resistance from various sectors of society.


Source : Sapa /mr/nsm/mjs/th/jk
Date : 01 Aug 2013 13:33 OrigID : LP344171
 
Compton_effect said:
Ok. That is a bit melodramatic. I support the whole campaign against Sanral, but really?
(Hold back of hand up against forehead)
'But what about the poor children, dramatic pause, who'se schools are next to the highway?'
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It may be melodramatic now... but I reckon we will see much more road wear and accidents in the future if this goes ahead.
 
Van Niekerk said they had costed in both extremes - the first is that the project will be smooth sailing and everyone gets an e-tag, and the second is that people do not co-operate and there will be postage, call and debt collection fees.

He said they were ready administratively for both situations. “We have planned to handle the volumes,” Van Niekerk said.
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People are not going to cooperate, in fact so many are not going to cooperate that you don't have a hope in hell of handling the volumes.
 
... and here's another reason to not co-operate
THE South African National Road Agency (Sanral) has spent R23.3m in the current financial year on advertising to promote e-tolling in Gauteng, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters said on Monday in reply to a written question in Parliament by Democratic Alliance transport spokesman Ian Ollis. .... business day
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http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/r85m-earmarked-for-sanral-s-e-toll-ads-1.1564666

Cape Town - Sanral is set to spend R85 million this year on advertising its controversial e-tolling plans in Gauteng, according to Transport Minister Dipuo Peters.

“The SA National Roads Agency Ltd has a budgeted amount of R85 million... which will be used for both the alternative sources of funding campaigns as well as corporate campaigns,” she said in a written reply to a parliamentary question, tabled on Monday.

An amount of R23.3m had been spent to date.

Peters was responding to a question Ä posed by Democratic Alliance MP Ian Ollis Ä on how much the roads agency “is planning to spend on advertising relating to the e-toll system in Gauteng”.

The minister's reply shows the agency's spending on advertising rose sharply after 2009/10. In that year, it spent R6.4m on “print and broadcasting advertising alternative sources of funding campaign”.

In 2010/11, 2011/12, and last year (2012/13), it spent totals of R30.4m, R84.5m and R87.1m respectively on campaigns and advertising.

In a statement issued later on Monday, Ollis said Sanral's determination to continue with its e-tolling campaign was “a disgrace”.

E-tolling would not benefit Gauteng residents, and would hit the poor hardest “by increasing the price of doing business, resulting in food price increases and inevitably undermining economic growth and job creation,” he said.

Sapa
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Must be nice spending other people's money.
 
All that money on advertising and yet I won't buy one.. meh. In other news Waze i see can direct you around eToll too as it recognizes it as a toll road :D
 
krycor said:
All that money on advertising and yet I won't buy one.. meh. In other news Waze i see can direct you around eToll too as it recognizes it as a toll road :D
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There is money to be made here. It shouldn't completely redirect you, it should still use sections which don't have gantries between them.
 
Wyzak said:
There is money to be made here. It shouldn't completely redirect you, it should still use sections which don't have gantries between them.
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hrm.. clever, will email them ans ask if they can do this!! :D hahahahaha this is evil genius as Waze could potentially work out best route doing so too using side roads galore(if this was cpt there wouldnt be as many options.. but then jhb does have road blocks. Wonder if eTolling people will put up road blocks to force traffic :-/)
 
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