‘Like flogging a dead horse’
● As of midnight on Thursday, e-tolls were no more, but the matter of the money owed by motorists — R14bn — still needs to be put to rest.
If Sanral is hoping to get Gauteng motorists to foot the bill, civic bodies have already warned the authority not to try its luck.
During Wednesday morning’s press conference, Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi said indebted motorists will have to pay up.
“Motorists [must] pay, that’s an obligation in terms of the law. On how we will enforce or not enforce, that’s a matter we have not yet discussed, we’ll be attending to that as time goes on,” said Lesufi.
He said the e-toll gantries would remain on and be used for policing speed enforcement “and many other things”.
AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel told the Sunday Times on Saturday that the organisation would be ready to support the first South African to be taken to court, should the government take that step.
“You must also remember that after three years your debt is prescribed. So if they decide to go to court they will not be able to take on individuals with older debt,” Kriel said.
He believes there is no mystery in the government and Sanral not answering questions on the historic debt.
“This is an election year. They will probably wait until after the voting is finished before making an announcement. The problem for them is that it won’t help them. The ruling party will still lose votes in the future. South Africans are tired of being complicit in corruption by funding it with their tax money.”
During Wednesday’s press conference, transport minister Sindisiwe Chikunga said the government was still in discussion regarding the historical debt owed by motorists.
Sanral, approached for answers on Thursday, replied on Friday with the media release issued after Wednesday’s press conference.
Wayne Duvenhage from the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) told the Sunday Times that asking motorists to pay their outstanding e-toll debt was “flogging a dead horse”.
“We have already shown Sanral in court that it would be a bad idea to go after individual motorists. They abandoned the civil process in March 2019 after we gave them a bloody nose,” Duvenhage said. “Sanral knows the government cannot withhold car disks or driving licences because of nonpayment of e-toll debt. If you can’t do that and you cannot get judgment by summons, what other avenues are open for them?”
It has now been more than 10 years of struggling to collect e-toll revenue, Duvenhage said.
“Only about 20% of people paid. What makes the government think things will change now that the system is where it belongs — on the scrap heap of history?”
While Duvenhage believes the historical debt cannot be recouped from motorists, he also believes those who did pay stand no chance of being refunded.
“This runs to just less than R7bn that was collected legally. I don’t see any way people will be refunded for payments that were collected legally,” Duvenhage said.
Abigail Moyo, a spokesperson for trade union Uasa, told the Sunday Times the union supported the call of the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) to the government to scrap all e-toll debt.
“The federation says it is unreasonable to hold citizens responsible for payments based on a system that was never implemented and imposed on them without appropriate consultation,” Moyo said on Friday.
“E-tolls were established in 2013 as part of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP). To date, motorists are left with massive debt and no clear indication of the way forward from the government.”
Fred Nel, the DA’s Gauteng shadow MEC for roads and logistics, called on the national transport department to start immediately the process of writing off all e-toll debts.
“In its entirety, e-toll debt is being repaid between the Gauteng provincial and the national governments. Additionally, all maintenance arrears are being repaid. Historical e-toll debt collection is yet another ill-fated enterprise cooked up in the premier’s office to save some face as his vanity project turned out to be, as is usually the case, a colossal failure,” Nel said on Thursday.
“The fact that between [the two governments] all e-toll debts are being repaid, as well as the fact that maintenance arrears are being covered, makes it unnecessary and illconceived to go after historical e-toll debt at all.”
He wanted to know, should the debts not be written off, who would own the e-toll debtors’ book.
“It would be unjust to give the debts to Sanral after its debts are settled by the national and provincial governments.”
Nel believes the focus must be on settling the “almost R14bn” owed by Gauteng residents.
“It is unfair to burden them more than they have already been with an ill-conceived moneymaking scheme that was a failure from when the first gantry went up to when they were switched off,” Nel said.
He believes the government’s “inability to collect arrears” will have disastrous consequences for all involved.
“They were unsuccessful in implementing e-tolls, and they will be unsuccessful in attempting to collect any arrears. All historical e-toll debt must be scrapped alongside every single gantry,” Nel said.
Earlier in the week, Chikunga said motorists would still receive invoices after the shutdown.
A Sanral spokesperson told the Sunday Times on Friday that Chikunga and Lesufi, as well as the leadership of Sanral, were able to sign a memorandum of agreement (MoA) to “formalise alternative funding solutions for the GFIP debt repayment and deal with the backlog of maintenance and rehabilitation costs”.
Motorists [must] pay, that’s an obligation in terms of the law. On how we will enforce or not enforce, that’ sa matter we have not yet discussed