Non-payment of e-tolls likely to cripple Sanral

THE nonpayment of e-toll fees in Gauteng poses a threat to the going-concern status of the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral), says chief executive Skhumbuzo Macozoma.

Macozoma and Rail Safety Regulator (RSR) chief executive Nkululeko Poya were appearing before parliament’s portfolio committee on transport in midweek.

Macozoma and Poya conceded the office of the auditor-general was correct in its assessment that Sanral and the regulator were among key state entities in danger of missing their targets.

He also painted a grim picture of the devastating effect the continued civil disobedience campaign in Gauteng against e-tolls was having on Sanral’s coffers.

It undermined Sanral’s revenue collection, posed a financial governance challenge for the agency and undermined capital generation through other means including bond auctions, Macozoma said.

“The going-concern status of Sanral due to poor collections on the Gauteng Freeway Improvement e-toll project is a significant challenge in executing our mandate,” said Macozoma.

“The uncertainty around e-toll fee collection made it difficult for Sanral to raise capital for road projects it had planned.”

The CEOs said their entities were in danger of missing their strategic targets because they did a lot of business with other government entities.

Earlier, Transport Minister Joe Maswanganyi told the committee his department’s entities subsidised other stateowned entities often at the transport entities’s own expense.

Poya told the committee a major challenge was that the rail regulator’s model only allowed it to generate revenue through permit fees.

He said the entity’s model had to be reconsidered to allow it to use other avenues to raise revenue.

“We are not getting money … from the fiscus and a high amount of our revenue comes from operators in the form of permit fees. It creates a problem in terms of cash-flow. We are looking at updating our … model to make it more relevant.” — TMG