The vote has been cast against e-tolls
It’s time for Sanral to come to its senses, writes Wayne Duvenage
IF you listen to Transport Minister Dipuo Peters, speaking at this week’s launch of transport month, or read South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) CEO Nazir Alli’s article on “why tolls are the best route to fund road infrastructure” on Thursday, neither seems aware of the fact that the e-toll system has manifestly failed to achieve its objectives.
Saying that tolls are the best way to fund roads, while this very system has failed, is a simple oxymoron.
After all, Peters and Alli’s power to fund roads is dramatically reduced when most of the people they expected to participate in tolling simply refuse to comply. While they talk of a “user-pays” system that is equitable, practical and efficient, the truth is that tolling has become a system in which users are not convinced and refuse to pay. Fewer users are paying tolls than are — which means the system is, for all intents and purposes, effectively defunct.
But the bigger concern is the crisis of legitimacy that develops when the government is unable to apply or enforce its own policies and laws.
Alli has spoken at length about how many kilometres of roads are managed by Sanral and the R160-billion backlog of road infrastructure and upgrade requirements.
Alli is right that these are serious concerns that require attention — but it does not mean that tolling is the panacea to our road infrastructure funding woes.
This week he argued that the fuel levy will not meet our road maintenance needs, however, this levy will have generated a significant R260bn for the past seven years, by the end of this tax year. Where has the levy money gone? But this argument is wrong. Looking forward, that same fuel levy is estimated to generate R710billion over the next decade (if we use a conservative 6% inflation of the levy, and an estimated 1.5% annual growth in litres sold). Once you add the additional billions generated by existing tolled routes — income which Sanral conveniently leaves out of the equation— one has to ask why there should ever be a backlog in road infrastructure development?
If we had a visionary transport leadership, they would urgently convene a transparent and inclusive road infrastructure funding summit, where economists and critics of the current systems would meet to thrash out the true scale of the problem and come up with solutions.
In Gauteng, the e-toll issue is an attempt by government to toll national routes within the confines of an urbanised region, without recognising the multi-faceted need to ease congestion at the regional authority level.
Easing urban congestion is not simply a case of adding an extra lane to a freeway: it requires the simultaneous introduction of measures such as suitably integrated public transport alternatives, safe cycling routes, extra rail and bus options, and park-and-ride networks.
Until these alternatives are in place, 85% of Gauteng’s commuting citizens remain trapped on the roads in cars and minibuses. Given this fact, urban freeway planning is only part of the congestion solution, which requires consultation with regional authorities and local society.
Had Alli’s Sanral done its homework properly, it would have seen that “boom-free” e-tolling systems fail in many parts the world if they do not have the committed buy-in of the users.
It doesn’t help Alli or Peters to drone on about how “right” e-tolling might be for Gauteng.
The decision about whether to keep e-tolls is no longer theirs to make: it is the people who travel on the roads who now hold the fate of the tolling regime in their hands.,
By exercising their rights, the majority of Gauteng’s freeway users have sent a clear message: “Learn to govern for the people, with the people.”
The public’s defiance campaign against e-tolls shows how citizens will react if they are treated like fools, and taken for granted.
As Outa (the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance), we respectfully im-
Gauteng’s freeway users have sent a clear message: ‘Learn to govern for the people, with the people’
plore Peters not to ignore the input sought by Gauteng premier David Makhura’s e-toll advisory panel.
National government should allow Gauteng’s authorities and citizens to be involved in resolving their own congestion issues. They certainly should not run roughshod over the Gauteng government’s consultation with its citizens.
The government must accept the reality of the e-tolls situation.
With less than 38% of people complying — a figure that is already in decline — e-tolls for Gauteng have failed. The sooner the authorities acknowledge this and apologise for getting us into this expensive mess, the sooner we can move forward.
It is not a mammoth matter to resolve: the Sanral bonds for the freeway upgrade require only R1.9billion per annum to repay. This is an insignificant amount when you consider how much money the Treasury gets from Gauteng. It is also only a small portion of the R50-billion that economists estimate is squandered each year through maladministration, incompetence and corruption.
And one last matter, minister: we implore you to appoint an indepen- dent inquiry to assess just how much we have overpaid for the Gauteng freeway upgrade. All indications point to a gross overpayment of several billions of rands, and an inquiry would be a precursor to clawing back a sizable portion of the funds paid out to colluding companies.
This would not only help reduce Sanral’s debt, it would also restore society’s faith in the government’s ability to take care of the interests of its citizens.
Duvenage is the head of Outa, the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance