FAQ

The following FAQ’s and Points of note are intended to provide clarity around some of the more current and topical issues regarding plans to implement e-Tolling in Gauteng  

1. Who is SANRAL?

SANRAL stands for the South African National Roads Agency Ltd and they are responsible to maintain national roads. They are a company that is owned 100% by Government and report to the Minister of Transport. More details about SANRAL at www.nra.co.za

2. What is GFIP?

The Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) is the project name given to the upgrade of the various main highways surrounding Johannesburg and on the way to Pretoria. The first phase of GFIP is 185 kilometers . (See more details on www.nra.co.za).

3. Who is OUTA?

OUTA stands for Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance. It is an association of other bodies, largely involved in the motoring and transport industry, who share a common view about the wrongs of urban tolling. These bodies have joined together to tackle this matter through a formalized legal challenge, the details of which will be shared on this web site as and when the papers are lodged.

4. Interesting points to note
1. How may KM were improved? 185km
2. How many toll gantries were built? 49, average spacing is 185km/49=3.77km
3. How many lanes were added? Effectively 1 extra lane
4. Was this a new road? No – it was merely an upgrade and maintenance of existing road.
5. The cost of the road improvements? R20b
6. Will you pay VAT on the e-toll (tax on tax) Yes

 

5. Does OUTA oppose the GFIP
1. Not at all. In fact we support the upgrading of all our cities freeways and highway infrastructure, throughout our country, which need to keep pace with the traffic demands and maintained to be safe. This is the roll of SANRAL and the various regional and municipal roads agencies.
2. OUTA (along with thousands of people who support their cause) is only opposed to e-Tolling as the method of collecting funds for road infrastructure upgrades and maintenance.

 

6. Why does OUTA oppose e-Tolling?
1. Because it is inefficient – effectively taking between 30% and 50% in administration, management and operating costs to collect money for the GFIP capital and interest, when a simple ring-fenced addition to the fuel levy would negate this huge cost, a far less cost than the e-Toll fees proposed.
2. Because SANRAL and the government have not acted in the best interests of the citizens in this instance and their arguments put forward to suggest e-tolling is the best solution for GFIP funding is flawed and without substance.
3. Because SANRAL did not conduct proper and comprehensive consultations with the public and business on e-tolling as it has been rolled out. Yes SANRAL have said they did consult and engage and yes, they will show us that they held some meetings and placed some adverts etc, but the extent of their work in this regard fell far short of what was required for a project of this magnitude. In short, their consultative process was dismal, a failure and a total disregard for the people whom their work is meant to serve.
4. Because SANRAL have not been transparent with the figures and funding models being applied in the e-toll process. For years now, we have not been able to establish the actual costs relating to the e-tolling process, and here we are not referring to the tender. Tolling is a tax. This is the citizen’s money being used here and we have a right to know how every rand is being used in the delivery of the service, be this through the outsourced providers of the service or SANRAL themselves.
5. Because the alternative routes and public transport infrastructure is hugely inadequate, thereby making e-tolling punitive to its citizens.

 

7. Do I have to buy a tag to travel on the tolled roads?
1. No you do not. SANRAL will like to have you believe that this must happen, but there is no law that compels you to purchase or install an e-tag.
2. You may also travel on all of Gauteng’s freeways without an e-tag, but the consequences of this (if e-tolling is implemented) is that you will not receive the discounted fee. In this regard, SANRAL will have to post you your road use bill and you will have to settle this directly with them. There is no doubting that this will be of significant administrative burden to SANRAL and in essence, could be the downfall of the system. This is why SANRAL are pleading for as many people as possible to fit tags.

 

8. Will I be allowed to renew my vehicle license if I don’t buy or use an e-tag?
1. The simple answer is YES. It is an absolute fallacy to suggest that cars cannot be relicensed if they do not have an e-tag, as has been commented in the press of late. Comments of this nature may be considered as scare tactics to get road users taged.
2. The law says that only those who have a summons against their name for outstanding traffic violations, will not be able to license their car.
3. As per the Justice Project of SA:
1. “The Department of Transport should be acutely aware of the fact that regulation 59 of the National Road traffic regulations only allows for withholding license discs if the person concerned has outstanding licensing fees or licensing penalties or, in the case of traffic fines, if they have failed to appear in court on a summons for a traffic offence and a warrant of arrest has been issued against them. The only exception to this rule is that under AARTO, a license disk may be withheld if an Enforcement Order has been issued against the party concerned.”
2. “There is no legislation that compels anyone to buy an e-Tag or register with SANRAL to have monies deducted at will out of their banking accounts. Suggestions that you will be forced to do so or face not having your license disc issued is nothing short of extortion and we take a very dim view of those concerned resorting to this tactic in order to intimidate Gauteng residents into complying with the decrees of all concerned.”

 

9. How much did the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) cost?

There are two parts to the GFIP project costs but the numbers are always kept vague, so in simple terms and rounding off:-

1. The actual construction cost of the freeway upgrade, interchanges and additional lanes etc. is frequently quoted at R20bn.
2. The tender, awarded to ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) for just over R6,2bn, was for both the construction of the gantries (approx. R1bn) and the cost of administering an e-Toll system (R5,2bn) for five years, where after we understand the tender will be re-opened again.   (See GFIP Public Report June 2011*). We believe there are additional operating expenses that need to be added to these figures but with the scant supply of information from SANRAL regarding these figures, we can only guess.

 

10. What is the Fuel Levy and why is this a good alternative as per OUTA?
1. The Fuel Levy is a tax the government applies to the sale of petrol, which today goes into the national treasury. The fuel levy was initially introduced in the 1970’s to support road maintenance and construction. Over time, the ring-fencing of the fuel levy was abolished to allow this lucrative source of funding to be channeled to other government needs, initially in the apartheid years to fund an unjust war and pressures of sanctions, while later in our new democracy the fuel levy goes into the pot to fund the many other socio-economic issues our government has to deal with.
2. This doesn’t mean that the Government cannot introduce ring-fencing going forward to specific projects such as GFIP. Ring-fencing is commonly used for a number of other applications such as the Road Accident Fund, the inland Fuel Pipeline etc.
3. SANRAL and Government officials / ministers have recently stated that if the fuel levy is applied as the funding mechanism for GFIP, they would have to increase the national fuel levy by R1.00 per liter. Our simple calculations indicate that for the 20bn liters we sell per annum, at 10c/l – ring-fenced for GFIP, we will raise the approximately R2bn per annum required to fund the R20bn capital requirement and interest (at 9%) costs over a 15 year payback period. At R1.00 per liter, we would pay the road off in less than 2 years??.

 

11. Where will the money I pay for e-Tolling go, if it goes ahead?
1. Well again, we’re not sure as SANRAL hasn’t given out a lot of detailed information on contracts, costs and revenues but the plan is that all money raised will go to pay back the money borrowed by SANRAL for both the construction work which totals to approximately R20bn, plus around R6,5bn for the toll system construction and management for 5 years, where after we are led to believe another tender will be conducted to appoint a new (or the same) supplier to manage and administer the system at a further Rxbn, we are not sure.
2. SANRAL have not confirmed exactly how much money will leave the country and how much will stay in South Africa. Indications are that close to 60% of the profits of e-tolling management will go offshore. Profits made on your taxes (tolling is a tax) – isn’t this just so wrong in the first place?

 

12. So what did the Minister of Finance apportionment of R5,8bn (in the recent Budget speech on 15 Feb 2012), pay for?
1. As far as we can understand, the Minister allocated R5,8bn of your taxes towards the outstanding SANRAL construction costs debt which means that SANRAL now owes about R14bn for the GFIP construction costs before considering the cost of the e-Toll administration and collection system.

 

13. Does that mean that we will spend R6,5bn to collect R14bn (6/14 * 100 = 43%)?
1. Given what we know and that Government have said they will not continue with further e-Toll project, the answer is  YES!. SANRAL wants to spend 43% of the revenue they collect through e-tolling to pay for the remaining R14bn GFIP debt (excluding interest costs), and that is only for the first 5 years. Any additional charges to manage and administer tolling thereafter will push this percentage of administration costs even further. It could be that eventually, the e-tolling administrative costs will amount to as much as the road construction costs were over time. It is important to know that South African Revenue Service (SARS) collects hundreds of billions of rands each year in various forms of taxes and levies and their admin costs are about 1%! Therefore, a proposed simple addition of approximately 10c to the national fuel level would by far be the easiest and less punitive method of funding the GFIP.

 

14. Should the Government simply not pay for the roads since we pay our taxes? Why should we now pay for GFIP when we pay our taxes, our annual vehicle license fee, local taxes, a Fuel Levy and long distance tolled routes?
1. Well, Government should pay for it but we understand that the money has to be found somewhere given that the borrowed money is now spent. OUTA and its members have suggested that in the instance of the GFIP, the public (road users) would be more willing to support the use of the Fuel Levy and other funding schemes to help pay not only for GFIP but also other major road projects across the country.
2. We also need to sit down with Government and agree which roads are the priority and why? Who decides what gets done to which road? Nobody other than Government seems to decide, are they the best people? Surely many of the associations representing road users could be involved? After all they and other users pay for the improvements?

 

15. SANRAL say that the new GFIP roads will generate hundreds of billions of savings for the road users who drive on these roads and pay the e-Tolls, what does this mean?
1. SANRAL have claimed that road users travelling on GFIP will enjoy the following benefits: (i) Time Savings, (ii) Reduced vehicle expenses due to better roads and (iii) Less accidents. The only problem is that the extent of the savings of +R200bn over 20 years is all based on an economic study which made use of SANRAL information and has not being independently reviewed. None of the major business or civil associations interviewed for their opinions. Indeed the Minister of Transport himself has suggested a lot concern about the claimed benefits from the claims made in the report and has referred this matter of GFIP savings to a Cabinet Task Team, from whom we have not heard anything from since. (see National Assembly GFIP benefit question reply (no 2598) )

 

16. Does SANRAL and E-Tolling guarantee these benefits? What if I am stuck in traffic on an e-road and delayed for 30mins, will I get compensated or refunded? Isn’t that what the Consumer Protection act is for? If I don’t get a service I pay for, I am entitled to compensation?
1. NO! As a road user, you are expected to pay whether you travel at 80 kilometers per hour or crawl at 10 kilometers per hour. SANRAL have said that they will have response teams and mobile paramedics who can attend to accident scenes to help relieve accident congestion. We thank SANRAL for these services, something we believe should be in place in a huge metro such as ours in any case, new roads or not.

 

17. How much will I pay going through a gantry?
1. Well, we don’t know in detail because the Minister of Transport has not yet made public the final schedule of e-Tolls tariffs. Various people in Government have spoken about discounts and a rate of 30cents per kilometer is the more popular cost used for light vehicles but remember last year when the pricing was published in full?  SANRAL then published the full pricing table in the papers and gave out brochures at most major intersections. We’ve not seen anything like that since although there is a lot of advertising to register for an e-Tag. Register without knowing the various price details?  
2. Remember, your payment is dependent on the distance between two gantry’s. So if the distance between two gantries is 10 kilometers and the rate is 30cents per kilometer, you will be charged R3 when you drive under the gantry. Remember, there are different distances between some of the different gantries so not all the gantries will cost R3. Some will be slightly more and some slightly less.  

 

18. SANRAL have said that commuter buses and taxis are exempt from tolling, is this true?
1. Well again, unfortunately we don’t know in detail because the Minister of Transport has not published the final schedule of e-Toll tariff’s which should also clarify who qualifies for exemption. It seems that, in the absence of accurate information from SANRAL, the simple rule is that you would be exempt if you have a driver’s passenger carrying permit and a permitted passenger carrying vehicle, which means that you are authorized to carry paying passengers on certain routes.
2. We also hear that the free access to these vehicles on the GFIP routes is not for 24 hours and 7 days a week and there is a possibility of fees due to these vehicles, but again, we are not clear on this matter.
3. There is also the question of all SANRAL tolled routes for Taxis and fair paying passenger vehicles – why do they only have free passage on GFIP and not the long distance tolled routes? Their argument for the free use of GFIP routes was to not pass on these burdensome costs to the poor. Well what about all tolled routes then? One detects this is an inconsistent application of their principles on this subject.

 

19. Will minibus taxis and commuter buses from other provinces be exempt?
1. We have no idea. No details published by SANRAL as yet.

 

20. Will metered taxis and transfer services, who operate with a driver and vehicle permit, be exempt?
1. We have no idea. No details published by SANRAL

 

21. How will SANRAL know who is a legal and valid minibus taxi or commuter bus?
1. Again, we have no idea, no details published by SANRAL as yet but, as we understand it, minibus taxi and commuter bus owners will first have to register their owner, vehicle, and payment details like a normal road user so that they are in the system but will then receive a charge and a matching credit as long as their permits etc are valid. If they expire, the e-Toll exemption will no longer apply.
2. It should be confirmed in the final e-Toll tariff schedule when it gets published but we understand that taxis and commuter buses will have to pay on weekends and public holidays, so they are not totally exempt.

 

22. SANRAL and the Government have said that ‘the poor’ won’t really feel the impact, why do they say this?
1. Well, we’re not sure because what is the definition of poor? If one earns R10,000 gross salary and take home R7,000 and have monthly bills of R6,500 am I rich or poor because I have a spare R500, which will now disappear is I travel the e-toll routes frequently to earn my salary. Now I’m R50 in further debt.
2. It is a fallacy for SANRAL and its supporters to say that the tolls are used over 90% by the people who can afford it and the average is R220 per user per month, “so what’s the issue?” as Dr Roelof Botha says – an economist who is pro-e-tolls. Tell that to the single mother school teacher or nurse who is struggling to get by and needs to drive her car along the freeways of Gauteng, the same ones she has used for years and contributed to from her taxes and fuel levies.
3. It’s a fallacy to think that the poor do not have cars and do not use the highways.
4. It’s a fallacy to think that the impact of tolling will not impact on the poor in other areas such as knock-on effect of price increases and job losses as a result of e-tolling costs.

 

23. COSATU have said they are against the e-Tolls because its ‘economic apartheid’, what do they mean?
1. As we understand it, if you own a car but you can’t afford the e-Tolls to travel on the GFIP roads then you have no choice but to either try to use some alternative roads or public transport. Almost everyone agrees, except the Minister of Transport, that there are no real reliable, safe and efficient alternatives available to somebody in Gauteng who must commute daily between home and work. As a car owner, it simply means that if you can’t afford to pay for e-Tolls which means you are ‘poor’ (?), you must then drive along congested and damaged secondary roads while the ‘rich’ who can afford to pay e-Tolls can drive on nice new roads. It also means logically, that if you can just about afford a car (and not e-Tolls) after travelling for many years in a minibus taxi and you need to travel on GFIP roads, well SANRAL want you to rather go back to traveling in the taxi or other alternative public transport? Sad isn’t it?

   The end result is that the rich and the poor are kept separate because of how much money people have and not because they need to use the same road to work! (see www.cosatu.org.za for more details) – check

24. What should I do if I oppose e-Tolls?
1. Speak to your local councilor, write letters to newspapers, SANRAL and Ministers, join blogs opposing e-Tolls, discuss your concerns amongst your friends and work colleagues, phone into radio shows and discuss your concerns, go to the SANRAL website and read all the details about what is involved. To have an opinion, you need information. This OUTA website is intended to try and help you understand the issues and you are welcome to become an OUTA supporter ..click through to the “Support Us” page on this www.OUTA.co.za web site.
2. Do not buy an e-Tag, unless you feel it necessary to do so to earn the discount offered. If you can afford the full rate, let SANRAL do the work to get your bill to you. Theoretically they need to mail this by registered mail to ensure you have received the invoice. There are just too many flaws, irregularities and unanswered questions.

It’s time the hard pressed road user got heard.  Together, all our voices will be loud.