Responding to a parliamentary Q&A from the Democratic Alliance’s Dennis Ryder, Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana said that e-toll gantries in Gauteng will only be turned off once a binding agreement is signed between the Gauteng Provincial Government and National Government on the province’s financial commitments to pay off the debt, its contribution to the backlog maintenance, and the administrative costs associated with the recover of tolls from defaulting users.
This comes roughly one year after the minister said that the controversial tolling scheme would be shut down by 31 December 2022.
During the 2022 medium-term budget speech (MTBPS), Godongwana announced that the Gauteng provincial government and national government collectively agreed to contribute 30% and 70%, respectively, to service the South African National Roads Agency’s (Sanral) debt and interest obligations, which includes e-tolls, after which the gantries will be decommissioned.
A year after the initial announcement, however, e-tolls are still billing motorists on a daily basis and their payment collections contract has been extended into December 2023, Sanral recently confirmed.
According to the minister, the outstanding issues related to the signing of a binding agreement and the subsequent shutting down of e-tolls are as follows:
- The provincial funding sources for the backlog maintenance and rehabilitation of the network and the duration over which this will be done
- Clarity on the province’s position and the costs associated with recovering funds from defaulting road users who have not paid tolls while the system was operational
This suggests that road users who did not pay their e-toll accounts over the course of the last 10 years will be liable to settle their debts before the scheme is shut down, contrasting previous statements by the Gauteng provincial government in January 2023 which stated that compliant users will be refunded
Another broken promise
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has lamented the government’s stubbornness to put an end to e-tolls and labeled the minister’s announcement from last year as yet another broken promise to South African motorists.
“As we stand in October 2023, not a single step has been taken to implement the decision to scrap e-tolls,” said Outa.
In addition, the civil rights group made a formal submission to the Standing and Select Committees on Appropriations and a verbal submission to the committees in November 2022, asking for an explanation of the MTBPS’s allocation of funds to Sanral.
In the MTBPS, the minister earmarked R27.476 billion for the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) split across R3.740 billion through the Adjustments Appropriation Act 2022 specifically for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, and R23.736 billion through the Special Appropriation Act 2022 for Sanral’s debt redemption fund.
In February 2023, the budget included another R2.2 billion for the GFIP and the Transport vote referred to the R23.736 billion received through the MTBPS towards the Sanral debt as “a partial solution” to the GFIP debt, with no clear explanation of that debt.
Parliament has since passed those bills, but Outa has yet to receive an explanation.
“This issue transcends the debate between national and provincial government responsibilities; it is about the irrationality and injustice of a scheme that has burdened Gauteng motorists for far too long,” said the group.
“The continued delay in ending the e-tolls system is a betrayal of the trust that citizens have placed in their government. We have patiently awaited relief from this irrational system, and the government’s inaction is causing needless stress to South African motorists.”
Keyword: What must happen for e-tolls to be shut down for good