The Civil Engineering Contractor July 2018 | Page 39

“So yes, benefits of congestion easing
were obtained — for a while — but
that’s now past. And what will they
do now, build another lane? Where?
The additional freeway links are long
overdue by the provincial authorities.”
We all know — and chafe at the
fact — that the money collected
was going offshore. So, in a failed
system, how much money did the
overseas collection company make
on the deal? Word is, nothing, and
that they are champing at the bit
to end the contract?
The CEO chuckles and responds, “They
certainly didn’t get what they were
counting on. Initially, the tender was
secured on their (ETC) bid for over
R1-billion per annum income — and
increasing — to operate the system.
But, over the past few years, they’ve
got less than R800-million per annum
— and declining. SANRAL got next to
nothing due to the failed compliance
levels. Had they achieved the income
of around R3-billion they sought,
based on around 93% compliance, they
would have effectively achieved an extra
R2-billion for themselves per annum.
Effectively, SANRAL would have earned
21% of their national tolling income
from 1% of their freeway network. A
case of overtaxing the economic cash
cow in Gauteng,” Duvenage adds with
evident contempt.
As OUTA has made such a
concerted stand against the
tolls, in retrospect, what was its
involvement while the tolls were
being built?
“One needs to understand that the
tolls and the freeway upgrade are two
different matters. The e-tolls is just
a financing mechanism for a freeway
upgrade. Virtually the entire public was
unaware of the e-toll decision taken to
pay for the freeway upgrade, until they saw
the gantries being built in Q3 of 2010.
“In the absence of a meaningful public
engagement programme, like any social
infrastructure upgrade, this project
was largely taken as being financed by
normal taxes, just as all urban freeways
were built in the past, when these
became congested owing to growth of
the economy.
“Furthermore, OUTA did not exist at
the time the Gauteng freeways were
being built (2008 to 2011). OUTA was
only formed in Feb 2012.”
This came about through the
combined efforts of the South
African Vehicle Renting and Leasing
Association (SAVRALA), the Retail
Motor Industries (RMI), South African
National Consumers Union (SANCU),
Southern Africa Tourism Services
Association (SATSA), and the QuadPara
Association of South Africa (QASA),
Duvenage explains.
“SAVRALA attended one meeting
in Centurion in the winter of 2008
(after the e-toll decision had been
taken), where SANRAL gave a high-
level discussion on a number of things,
including a new electronic tolling
scheme they had for the Gauteng
freeways. However, they did not give
sufficient detail to direct any decision-
making or understanding of how the
scheme might impact their industry at
the time.
“When asked to give more input,
SANRAL said they would engage with
the car rental industry at a future date
— which they never did. Besides, as
I indicated earlier, the e-toll decision
had already been taken, so this late
engagement was meaningless.
“One must ask oneself, how was it
possible that the biggest fleet operators
(car rental, road freight industry,
courier companies and the like) were
not aware of the scheme until the
end of 2010, when the upgrade was
almost complete — four years after the
decision was signed off by government?
Again, a sign of sheer lack of meaningful
public engagement by SANRAL.”
Any