Sanral feels sting of e-toll rethink
Projected income nose-dives on ANC GP doubts
SANRAL bosses put on a “bit of a show” at this week’s hearing to review the impact of e-tolls in Gauteng.
But buried among the 200 pages of their submission, led by CEO Nazir Alli, was a hard truth: the roads agency had suffered a R180-million loss in projected e-toll income since June 27, the day that Gauteng premier David Makhura called for a review of the system.
The provincial government announced the review after the significant loss of urban votes by the ANC in the May elections, a setback blamed on e-tolls.
Sanral confirmed that its total income from e-tolls between July and October was R365-million, well short of its projected R545-million.
This was after the December-toJune income of R725-million had exceeded the agency’s projected R590-million.
Sanral collected its highest monthly revenue of R120-million in two successive months, May and June. By July the figures had started dwindling and by last month income was down to a new low of R65-million.
Sanral chief financial officer Inge Mulder told the review panel that “external” forces were to blame for noncompliance.
Mulder said the low compliance level that was being experienced had not yet affected Sanral’s ability to service the R20-billion loan it secured to upgrade the Gauteng freeways.
However, it was likely to affect other priorities.
Some of Sanral’s immediate priorities include building and maintaining more than 1 500km of provincial roads in Limpopo that were recently transferred to the agency.
Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project manager Alex van Niekerk said phase two, which involved the expansion of the network and construction of 158km of new roads, including a freeway to link the West Rand and Midrand, was al- ready affected.
Just after 10am on Thursday, as Sanral’s bigwigs were about to start their presentation, a confident Alli told the panel in the large boardroom: “Maybe we’re going to have a bit of a show over here.”
Surrounded by a dozen TV cameras, he spoke uninterrupted for about 90 minutes.
The e-toll system, covering 201km, he reminded those present, was a “tiny” part of the agency’s bigger mandate.
Alli said Sanral was responsible for the strategic planning of South Africa’s national road system to provide “a safe, well-engineered road”.
He said Sanral was not allowed to make a profit and that tolls levied from tolled roads went back into servicing the same roads.
The agency, he said, also had 18 000km of non-tolled roads to manage and maintain with the R10-billion it got from the National Treasury this year.
The review panel has been welcomed by those seeking to alleviate the burden on motorists, but there have been concerns that it is unlikely to effect any change.
Gauteng government spokesman Thabo Masebe said Makhura would submit the review panel’s findings to the Gauteng provincial executive.
Addressing criticism of the panel, Masebe said: “It’s not a futile exercise, as the panel looks at the impact and will suggest measures or steps that can be taken by government whether provincial, national or local.”
The Gauteng ANC’s recent public rejection of e-tolling “in its current form” has put it on a collision course with Luthuli House. The party in Gauteng, which also made submissions to the review panel, was adamant that its recommendations would be implemented.
The 12-member review panel, for which a R10-million budget has been set aside, is chaired by Muxe Nkondo and includes academics and economists.
A joint submission made by Sibusiso Buthelezi, a former head of department in the Gauteng transport and roads department, and Dumisani Hlophe, a chief director in the office of the premier between 2005 and 2008, stated that tolling, in its initial form, had been part of a bigger plan that included the provision of a reliable public transport system.
Buthelezi, with former premier Mbhazima Shilowa and Alli, were signatories to the March 2008 memorandum of understanding that gave the green light for the implementation of the tolling system in the province.
In “How Things Fell Apart”, a joint submission as “citizens”, Buthelezi and Hlophe argue that tolling on the highways should have been complemented by an integrated public transport system.
They say the initial plan was for every resident of Gauteng to be within walking distance of an integrated public transport system. ACCLAIMED South African artist Zwelethu Mthethwa will use a “gait” expert in an attempt to show that he is not the man caught on CCTV footage beating a prostitute to death.
It is believed that the expert, who has not been identified, will give evidence that suggests the way the man on the footage walks does not match Mthethwa’s style of walking.
Mthethwa’s murder trial will start tomorrow in the High Court in Cape Town. He is charged with kicking and trampling Nokuphila Kumalo, 23, to death in Woodstock, Cape Town, in April last year.
Mthethwa’s lawyer, William Booth, said other expert witnesses would also be called.
“Gait analysis is an interesting aspect. It has never been used in a South African criminal case before,” said Booth.
Records of a tracking device fitted to Mthethwa’s car, a black Porsche, show the vehicle leaving his home in Devil’s Peak and heading towards Ravenscraig Road in Woodstock during the early hours of April 14 2013.
CCTV footage shows the car stopping next to Nokuphila.
“The driver . . . exited the motor vehicle, walked to the deceased and attacked her by repeatedly kicking her and stomping her body with booted feet,” court documents read.
“During the attack the accused was assisted by an unknown female.”
Postmortem results showed that Nokuphila died from blunt trauma injury.
Her mother, Eva Kumalo, a 49year-old domestic worker, said she had seen the footage, but she broke down before she could watch the entire video.
She moved to Cape Town from Kimberley with Nokuphila eight years ago.
“My child was killed like a dog. We could not even view her body at the funeral. I understand that she lost an eye in the IT WASN’T ME: Zwelethu Mthethwa gruesome beating,” Kumalo said. “I have already forgiven Mthethwa. I have handed him to God and the justice system.”
Nokuphila’s close friend told Kumalo that Mthethwa was her daughter’s “client”.
Mthethwa’s large-scale photographs of working-class South Africans have been exhibited worldwide. Venues such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the International Centre of Photography have exhibited his work.
One of his paintings, Good Times, will go on auction at Strauss & Co in Joburg tomorrow with a bidding price of between R80 000 and R120 000. Booth said art collectors had been reluctant to buy Mthethwa’s work since he was charged.
Mark Read, the director of the Everard Read Gallery, said he had not sold any of Mthethwa’s works since the murder.
Nine other prostitutes have been killed across the country since July.
A survey by the NGO Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force last year found that 57% of prostitutes suffered abuse from their clients.
Mthethwa is out on R100 000 bail.