R7bn e-toll price-fixing scandal still not addressed: Outa

A crucial issue highlighted by the e-toll review panel which has yet to be addressed by the government is the “tender collusion and price-fixing scandal” which inflated the cost of the freeway upgrade by billions of rands, said the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) on Thursday.

Outa was reacting to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s response to parliamentary questions on Wednesday about what he termed the new e-toll dispensation, during which he told MPs that government sometimes has to take unpopular decisions in the interest of its people.

“Yet government’s reluctance to take a principled and ‘unpopular’ position on this matter appears to be missing,” said Outa in a press release on Thursday.

“Instead, they continue to thrust an unjust, irrational and unworkable scheme onto the public, by using carrots of hollow discounts and threats of withholding vehicle licences to coerce the public to comply.”

Outa said its research has estimated that the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) upgrade has cost taxpayers an estimated R7bn or 65% more than it should have.

Ramaphosa has admitted that the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) is R20bn in the red, but has said nothing about any plans and measures to recover the GFIP construction overcharging, Outa chairperson Wayne Duvenage pointed out.

Outa highlighted its concern that in February 2012, National Treasury contributed R5.7bn towards the GFIP project, thereby lowering the tariff from 40c to 30c.

“The bonds raised from GFIP were R20bn before this injection, which begs the question of why government still reflects these bonds at R20bn outstanding, or are they referring to other non-tolled bonds in this total?” asked Outa.

“It would appear there is a lack of clarity around the accounting between traditional national roads, toll concession roads and GFIP ‘business units’,” Outa said.

According to Outa, the new e-toll rate on offer is merely the e-tag rate of 30c per kilometre, with no reduction at all.

“The 50% reduction in the R450 cap is only applicable to 7% of motorists according to Sanral’s own claims, and this reduction means nothing to 93% of motorists.”

Outa also said that the public are being treated like fools.

It added that e-toll defiance is not about the money and the tariffs, but about “a grossly unjust and irrational scheme which is inefficient and costs billions to administer, while alternative efficient policies exist for government to fund these roads, but which for some strange reasons, have been ignored”.

Outa said it “takes with a pinch of salt” Ramaphosa’s claim that thousands of motorists are enquiring and taking up the offers of discounts from the new dispensation.

Over two million motorists, roughly 80% of Gauteng’s freeway users, are still not paying for e-tolls, said Outa.

“So while we can imagine there might be a few thousand motorists enquiring about the new dispensation, the final number that will fall for these shallow tactics will be in the minority, just as it was in 2014. This time around, we are confident the authorities will not even achieve last year’s maximum levels of compliance.”

Source: News24

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