E-toll burden increased

It was reported yesterday by The Star that Gauteng residents will subsidise a R123-million e-toll shortfall.

“The Gauteng provincial government on Tuesday took a decision to give the money to the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project,” it reports. “However, this R123 million only amounts to half a month’s payments required by the e-toll scheme to meet its required target of more than R260 million a month.”
   
In response to the announcement, chairman of the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (OUTA), Wayne Duvenage, states: “When compared to the massive costs of the e-toll system, the R123 million in taxpayer’s money, paid by the Gauteng Provincial government to Sanral, amounts to nothing more than rearranging the deck chairs on the sinking Titanic.
   
“It illustrates the enormous burden Sanral has placed on Gauteng motorists, which the vast majority (now at close to 80 percent) have continued to reject by refusing to pay.”
   
“R123 million would have been valuable for other critical priorities in the province,” Duvenage continues.
   
“Financing Sanral’s e-toll system robs Gauteng taxpayers of investments in more viable projects in the province, and could even be in direct contravention with the Sanral Act, which clearly states that there could be no-cross subsidisation between tolled and non-tolled funding and operations,” he notes.
   
Read The Star’s full story here.