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Question of the Day: At what point do you sell your car?
[May 2013..Dec 2013] The Gauteng E-tolling Thread
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LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Moody's downgrades Sanral again over e-toll debacle
http://mg.co.za/article/2013-09-06-moodys-downgrade-sanral-over-e-toll-debacle/
The South African National Roads Agency has again been downgraded by ratings agency Moody's thanks to prolonged battles over e-tolls.
Moody's downgraded the South African National Roads Agency Limited's (Sanral's) global long-term issuer rating from Baa2 to Baa3, and its national scale rating from A2.za to A3.za, it announced on Friday. It also placed the agency on review for a further possible downgrade.
The failure to implement e-tolling, has led to a "significant deterioration" of the company's cash flows needed to pay off the extensive debt it incurred to complete the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP), Moody's said.
Sanral took on R20-billion in debt to finance the improvement project, half of which is guaranteed by government.
It had however increased this debt stock to R36.2-billion as of March 2013, according to Moody's.
The ratings agency expected that debt levels could increase even further to around R39-billion by the end of the 2014 financial year.
Financial strain on Sanral
"E-tolling was initially expected to begin in June 2011 and its revenue was expected to absorb the company's mounting debt-service costs," Moody's said.
The resultant financial strain on Sanral, casts doubt "on the company's financial health in the medium term", the ratings agency said.
The launch of e-tolling faces further possible delays however.
Last week, the Mail & Guardian reported that the Transport Laws and Related Matters Amendment Bill – which must be passed into law before tolling can go ahead, has been delayed.
http://mg.co.za/article/2013-09-06-moodys-downgrade-sanral-over-e-toll-debacle/
The South African National Roads Agency has again been downgraded by ratings agency Moody's thanks to prolonged battles over e-tolls.
Moody's downgraded the South African National Roads Agency Limited's (Sanral's) global long-term issuer rating from Baa2 to Baa3, and its national scale rating from A2.za to A3.za, it announced on Friday. It also placed the agency on review for a further possible downgrade.
The failure to implement e-tolling, has led to a "significant deterioration" of the company's cash flows needed to pay off the extensive debt it incurred to complete the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP), Moody's said.
Sanral took on R20-billion in debt to finance the improvement project, half of which is guaranteed by government.
It had however increased this debt stock to R36.2-billion as of March 2013, according to Moody's.
The ratings agency expected that debt levels could increase even further to around R39-billion by the end of the 2014 financial year.
Financial strain on Sanral
"E-tolling was initially expected to begin in June 2011 and its revenue was expected to absorb the company's mounting debt-service costs," Moody's said.
The resultant financial strain on Sanral, casts doubt "on the company's financial health in the medium term", the ratings agency said.
The launch of e-tolling faces further possible delays however.
Last week, the Mail & Guardian reported that the Transport Laws and Related Matters Amendment Bill – which must be passed into law before tolling can go ahead, has been delayed.
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Sanral's plans to punish e-toll rebels
http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2013/09/09/sanral-s-plans-to-punish-e-toll-rebels
Details are emerging of how the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) intends cracking down on Gauteng motorists who buck the e-tolling system.
It has emerged that motorists will have little time to pay their fines before being dragged into court.
Sanral communications manager Vusi Mona said once the system got the go-ahead from President Jacob Zuma, road-users would have seven days, from the first gantry pass, to pay their e-tolls.
If they fail to pay within seven days they will be referred to Sanral's violations processing centre [the division that deals with overdue tolls].
Mona said motorists would have a chance to settle their e-toll accounts and, depending on the time within which the tolls were paid after the period of grace, discounts might be given.
Mona said that, if the motorist still did not pay, a final demand would be issued and the matter handed over to the National Prosecuting Authority.
Sanral said 500000 e-tags had been bought, 300000 of them, it claimed, by private individuals. There are 2.5million motorists in Gauteng.
Sanral will have vehicles cruising Gauteng's tolled roads on the lookout for toll "refuseniks". It is not known if the Sanral cars will be marked.
Mona said Sanral will work with the law enforcement agencies.
"The units are about ensuring that we can support law enforcement by producing supporting information for them to enforce the law on the spot.
"The mobile units will use the e-Natis system to verify road-user information."
Critics have cast doubts on the e-Natis system, which cost more than R400-million to set up, arguing that it does not have up-to-date data on motorists and cannot be relied on by law enforcers.
Sanral last week said it would enforce compliance with e-tolling through the Criminal Procedure Act and not the controversial Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (Aarto).
Zuma is not likely to sign e-tolling into law before the 2014 general elections - fearing the voter backlash that would be likely to hurt the ANC at the polls.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2013/09/09/sanral-s-plans-to-punish-e-toll-rebels
Details are emerging of how the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) intends cracking down on Gauteng motorists who buck the e-tolling system.
It has emerged that motorists will have little time to pay their fines before being dragged into court.
Sanral communications manager Vusi Mona said once the system got the go-ahead from President Jacob Zuma, road-users would have seven days, from the first gantry pass, to pay their e-tolls.
If they fail to pay within seven days they will be referred to Sanral's violations processing centre [the division that deals with overdue tolls].
Mona said motorists would have a chance to settle their e-toll accounts and, depending on the time within which the tolls were paid after the period of grace, discounts might be given.
Mona said that, if the motorist still did not pay, a final demand would be issued and the matter handed over to the National Prosecuting Authority.
Sanral said 500000 e-tags had been bought, 300000 of them, it claimed, by private individuals. There are 2.5million motorists in Gauteng.
Sanral will have vehicles cruising Gauteng's tolled roads on the lookout for toll "refuseniks". It is not known if the Sanral cars will be marked.
Mona said Sanral will work with the law enforcement agencies.
"The units are about ensuring that we can support law enforcement by producing supporting information for them to enforce the law on the spot.
"The mobile units will use the e-Natis system to verify road-user information."
Critics have cast doubts on the e-Natis system, which cost more than R400-million to set up, arguing that it does not have up-to-date data on motorists and cannot be relied on by law enforcers.
Sanral last week said it would enforce compliance with e-tolling through the Criminal Procedure Act and not the controversial Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (Aarto).
Zuma is not likely to sign e-tolling into law before the 2014 general elections - fearing the voter backlash that would be likely to hurt the ANC at the polls.
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
More stupid unenforceable threats!
Does SANRAL think they will just be able to demand a court date for hundreds of thousands of people after just seven days?
The courts are already clogged up... people will be waiting two to three years to go to court for a R500 (or less) bill?
I don't think so Sanral, I dunno what that stuff is that you are smoking but it must be pretty powerful!
Does SANRAL think they will just be able to demand a court date for hundreds of thousands of people after just seven days?
The courts are already clogged up... people will be waiting two to three years to go to court for a R500 (or less) bill?
I don't think so Sanral, I dunno what that stuff is that you are smoking but it must be pretty powerful!
AlphaBravo
Expert Member
A few will be made examples in order to strike the fear in the rest.
daveza
Honorary Master
Just more fear mongering.
2.5 mil drivers, 500,000 with e-tags.
That's two million statements in the mail - every week ?!!
Of those say 500,000 pay - that leaves 1.5 million legal cases to institute. Every week.
The nats took a very long time to realise the numbers were against them - time Sanral learnt the same lesson.
2.5 mil drivers, 500,000 with e-tags.
That's two million statements in the mail - every week ?!!
Of those say 500,000 pay - that leaves 1.5 million legal cases to institute. Every week.
The nats took a very long time to realise the numbers were against them - time Sanral learnt the same lesson.
MagicDude4Eva
Banned
And you would expect that statements arrive within one week via SAPO - hahahaha...
daveza
Honorary Master
And that figure of 2.5 million is only the estimated Gauteng motorists.
Add to that figure trucks, taxis and vehicles from all the other provinces who will need to be invoiced, mailed, summonsed....
Add to that figure trucks, taxis and vehicles from all the other provinces who will need to be invoiced, mailed, summonsed....
OrbitalDawn
Ulysses Everett McGill
What does the CPA have to say about all this? If we're not satisfied with the product can we return it?
And I think they should be sued for abuse of court if they try to institute that many legal proceedings.
And I think they should be sued for abuse of court if they try to institute that many legal proceedings.
This. Having to pay within 7 days is just pure greed. Why is it not the usual 30 days i.e. until next pay day?
Sinbad
Honorary Master
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Pretty sure the national credit regulator will have something to say about this as well.
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
And then those few 'examples' will hire lawyers and assert their constitutional rights and SANRAL will be made to look like the idiots they are.
Then the entire system will collapse because SANRAL will realise they have no actual legal enforcement methods.
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
SANRAL have applied to be exempted from that legislation.
That's what the legislation in front of Zuma is for.
Sinbad
Honorary Master
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SO they want to provide credit, without obeying the credit laws? That's just bull****.
How are they going to chase down 100 000 non-paying cars a day?
How exactly can they force you to pay on the spot? What if the driver is not he vehicle owner?
Hahahahaha, no need to say anything more about this.
Yes, because the courts don't have 3-4 year backlogs of murder and rape trials already.
Ovias!
ABC123GP ran out of numbers.
So let's take out 6 vowels, which leaves us with 20 * 20 * 20 * 10 * 10 * 10 = 8 million combinations of registered vehicles. So yeah 2.5 million is an incredibly conservative estimate of ONLY those in Gauteng.
Sinbad
Honorary Master
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And we're already on CR xx xx GP... which is another 34 * 20*10*10*20 = 1.36m
Same story with POPI legislation... higher standard for private sector, but let's exempt the State
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Sanral's penalty plans 'severely flawed'
http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?op...ral-s-penalty-plans-severely-flawed-&catid=69
The Justice Project SA (JPSA) has slammed the SA National Roads Agency's (Sanral's) plan to prosecute e-toll transgressors, saying it is "severely flawed" and amounts to scare tactics by the state-owned agency.
Sanral's recovery plan, upon the commencement of e-tolls, indicates that Gauteng motorists who fail to cough up for e-tolls could be criminally prosecuted.
As motorists await what the Department of Transport has tagged inevitable – the eventual commencement of open road tolling on Gauteng's highways – Sanral has been readying itself for the equal inevitability of mass e-toll evasion, and has a plan for violators that will ultimately see them being handed over to the National Prosecuting Authority.
Punishment process
According to Vusi Mona, GM of communications at Sanral, road users will have seven days, from the first gantry pass, to pay their e-toll transactions. "If the e-toll transaction is not paid within seven days, it is transferred to the violations processing centre (the section of e-toll operations that deals with overdue toll amounts)."
Mona says all discounts will fall away when transactions are in the violations processing centre, and the alternative toll tariff will then apply. During this stage, transactions will be tallied and an invoice submitted to the road user, who will be given an opportunity to settle the amount payable and – depending on the time within which the fees are paid – post-grace-period discounts might apply (another seven days).
"During that time, a debt collection process will take place and, once it appears that the debt collection process is unsuccessful, a final demand will be issued and the issue handed over to the prosecuting authority."
As part of Sanral's enforcement strategy, says Mona, "mobile units with traffic officers will be stationed at on- and off-ramps, and will also roam the Gauteng e-roads for enforcement of outstanding infringements".
Forty-nine gantries span Gauteng's highways. Toll fees are charged per overhead gantry passed, rather than the kilometres a vehicle travels. Each time a vehicle passes underneath a gantry, the toll fee is charged as a single transaction – with the cost per gantry being determined by the kilometre distance it represents.
Easier said than done
But while it is easy for Sanral to say how the agency will deal with e-toll rebels, says JPSA national chairman Howard Dembovsky, it is not so easy to carry out these "threats".
Dembovsky says Sanral's punishment plan amounts to scare tactics, and is unreasonable in light of the likely volume of offenders and the limited capacity SA's criminal justice system has to deal with them.
According to SA's electronic National Traffic Information System (eNatis), there were 3 799 750 road users registered in Gauteng, as at 30 June. Dembovsky says the fact that Sanral claims around 2 500 000 of these use Gauteng's e-toll freeways on a daily/monthly basis means more than two million vehicles do not have e-tags at this stage – 80% of vehicles on the roads in Johannesburg and Tshwane.
Sanral says SA's Criminal Procedures Act will be used to prosecute e-toll offenders – a notion Dembovsky says is entirely possible – but fails to take into account a key issue.
"What seems to have been overlooked is the fact that the National Prosecuting Authority does not prosecute one million criminal matters in total over the course of a year; let alone double that each month."
He says implementation of Sanral's idea would essentially bring the South African criminal justice system to a grinding halt. "Clearly, [Sanral] would like all prosecutions for serious crimes to be sidelined in favour of criminalising people who choose to oppose their unjust e-toll laws."
http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?op...ral-s-penalty-plans-severely-flawed-&catid=69
The Justice Project SA (JPSA) has slammed the SA National Roads Agency's (Sanral's) plan to prosecute e-toll transgressors, saying it is "severely flawed" and amounts to scare tactics by the state-owned agency.
Sanral's recovery plan, upon the commencement of e-tolls, indicates that Gauteng motorists who fail to cough up for e-tolls could be criminally prosecuted.
As motorists await what the Department of Transport has tagged inevitable – the eventual commencement of open road tolling on Gauteng's highways – Sanral has been readying itself for the equal inevitability of mass e-toll evasion, and has a plan for violators that will ultimately see them being handed over to the National Prosecuting Authority.
Punishment process
According to Vusi Mona, GM of communications at Sanral, road users will have seven days, from the first gantry pass, to pay their e-toll transactions. "If the e-toll transaction is not paid within seven days, it is transferred to the violations processing centre (the section of e-toll operations that deals with overdue toll amounts)."
Mona says all discounts will fall away when transactions are in the violations processing centre, and the alternative toll tariff will then apply. During this stage, transactions will be tallied and an invoice submitted to the road user, who will be given an opportunity to settle the amount payable and – depending on the time within which the fees are paid – post-grace-period discounts might apply (another seven days).
"During that time, a debt collection process will take place and, once it appears that the debt collection process is unsuccessful, a final demand will be issued and the issue handed over to the prosecuting authority."
As part of Sanral's enforcement strategy, says Mona, "mobile units with traffic officers will be stationed at on- and off-ramps, and will also roam the Gauteng e-roads for enforcement of outstanding infringements".
Forty-nine gantries span Gauteng's highways. Toll fees are charged per overhead gantry passed, rather than the kilometres a vehicle travels. Each time a vehicle passes underneath a gantry, the toll fee is charged as a single transaction – with the cost per gantry being determined by the kilometre distance it represents.
Easier said than done
But while it is easy for Sanral to say how the agency will deal with e-toll rebels, says JPSA national chairman Howard Dembovsky, it is not so easy to carry out these "threats".
Dembovsky says Sanral's punishment plan amounts to scare tactics, and is unreasonable in light of the likely volume of offenders and the limited capacity SA's criminal justice system has to deal with them.
According to SA's electronic National Traffic Information System (eNatis), there were 3 799 750 road users registered in Gauteng, as at 30 June. Dembovsky says the fact that Sanral claims around 2 500 000 of these use Gauteng's e-toll freeways on a daily/monthly basis means more than two million vehicles do not have e-tags at this stage – 80% of vehicles on the roads in Johannesburg and Tshwane.
Sanral says SA's Criminal Procedures Act will be used to prosecute e-toll offenders – a notion Dembovsky says is entirely possible – but fails to take into account a key issue.
"What seems to have been overlooked is the fact that the National Prosecuting Authority does not prosecute one million criminal matters in total over the course of a year; let alone double that each month."
He says implementation of Sanral's idea would essentially bring the South African criminal justice system to a grinding halt. "Clearly, [Sanral] would like all prosecutions for serious crimes to be sidelined in favour of criminalising people who choose to oppose their unjust e-toll laws."
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