{"id":62262,"date":"2012-10-15T11:55:10","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T09:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=62262"},"modified":"2012-10-17T16:04:31","modified_gmt":"2012-10-17T14:04:31","slug":"e-tolls-public-must-know-details","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/62262-e-tolls-public-must-know-details.html","title":{"rendered":"E-tolls: public must know details"},"content":{"rendered":"

The details of the electronic toll collection contract (ETC) should not be kept confidential, the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa<\/a>) said on Monday.<\/p>\n

“It shouldn’t be confidential. It is taxpayers’ money that is being used to pay the tolls, so the taxpayer should know what the money is being used for,” said Outa chairman Wayne Duvenage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, there was nothing he could do about it, after Outa agreed to sign a confidentiality agreement, said Duvenage.<\/p>\n

He said this was the only way Outa would have been able to get access to the ETC contract to prepare for its court case.<\/p>\n

Duvenage was responding to a report in The Star newspaper on Monday that parts of the high court review of the project in November could be held in camera because of the confidentiality agreement.<\/p>\n

This meant that taxpayers might never know the full agreements, pricing and subcontracts surrounding e-tolling.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Constitutional Court overturned an interim order which put a hold on the Gauteng e-tolling project.<\/p>\n

During the case, the legal team representing the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral<\/a>) made selective references to the ETC contract, which Outa had not seen.<\/p>\n

“Now imagine a court case for them to use the contract even though we had not seen it,” said Duvenage.<\/p>\n

“We needed to see them… so we were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement to see it.”<\/p>\n

The Democratic Alliance said the signing of the confidentiality agreement was suspicious.<\/p>\n

“We have to ask why does Sanral appear to be hiding something, and who is it seeking to protect?” DA MPL Neil Campbell asked in a statement.<\/p>\n

He said full disclosure had to be given to Gauteng residents.<\/p>\n

“This case should take place with unrestricted public access, despite indications that Sanral wants part of it to be held behind closed doors,” said Campbell.<\/p>\n

“Anything less than full disclosure will confirm that Sanral and the government have something to hide.”<\/p>\n

He said Parliament, on request, received 27 of the 33 contracts relating to the e-tolls. The others were not given.<\/p>\n

“Why are the other six contracts not forthcoming? he asked.<\/p>\n

“The latest in the smoke and mirrors saga is the confidentiality requirement which adds to the thick veil of secrecy surrounding e-tolling.”<\/p>\n

This added to speculation that someone at Sanral or in the government stood to make “a pot of money” from e-tolling, said Campbell.<\/p>\n

The Constitutional Court found that the High Court in Pretoria had not considered the separation of powers between the high court and executive.<\/p>\n

In April, the high court granted Outa an interdict, ruling that a full review needed to be carried out before electronic tolling could be put into effect.<\/p>\n

The interdict prevented Sanral from levying or collecting e-tolls pending the outcome of the review.<\/p>\n

Sanral and the National Treasury appealed against the court order, and said delays prevented the payment of the R21 billion incurred in building gantries.<\/p>\n

The review was expected take place in the High Court in Pretoria on November 26.<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/h3>\n

E-toll advertising battle<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sanral toll boards misleading public says DA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Shocking new e-toll rate: OUTA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

E-toll talks almost over<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

E-toll resistance to follow: Vavi<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OUTA has said that the public must not be kept in the dark with regards to the e-toll plans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":48727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[36,9413,8461,10240,9806,2072],"class_list":["post-62262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-active","tag-e-tolls","tag-etoll","tag-etolling","tag-outa","tag-sanral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62262"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62474,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62262\/revisions\/62474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}