In a recent parliamentary Q&A session, the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) and the national Department of Transport (DoT) revealed they have set up a steering committee to find a solution to ending e-tolls in Gauteng, but that no plans are yet in place to do so.
According to a report by BusinessTech, no solutions to the tolling scheme have been provided yet, and any that are must still be approved by the relevant authorities which is a lengthy process in and of itself.
Additionally, the GPG was unable to give an exact amount that needs to be paid towards the e-toll debt, suggesting it has yet to do the calculation and is also uncertain about how it will be paying the bill.
This comes after the National Roads Agency (Sanral) confirmed to TopAuto that it has renewed the e-toll collections contract until December 2023, and that road users are required to pay their bills until the relevant legislation has been repealed.
Refunds, shutdowns, things that will never happen
During the October 2022 medium-term budget speech, finance minister Enoch Godongwana announced that the GPG and national government agreed to contribute 30% and 70%, respectively, to service Sanral’s debt and interest obligations, which include the controversial e-tolls.
At the time, Sanral received R23.7 billion from the national government for assistance in relieving the debt, which the agency called a “partial solution.” Since then, Sanral has also moved at least R2.2 billion from its non-toll road account to the GFIP ledger to pay a portion of its dues.
Following the minister’s announcement, the GPG took over the maintenance of the scheme and the responsibility of deciding its future.
Shortly thereafter, the provincial authorities said that the tolling infrastructure could be repurposed with one possible use case being law enforcement by means of average speed monitoring.
In January 2023, however, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi revealed that e-tolls were supposed to be completely scrapped by 31 December 2022, but that a key issue that led to the delay of the shutdown was the decision on whether or not compliant motorists should be refunded.
The choice was made that road users who have been diligently paying their accounts over the years will be refunded, but the main roadblock was to find a way to reimburse these businesses and individuals.
“It’s clear we have to refund people. We will refund people who have paid. The outstanding debate is the manner in which they will be refunded,” the premier said.
While the decision was a welcome one, it was met with skepticism from several organisations and business leaders owing to how it would be achieved, both in terms of logistics and financing.
In a recent opinion piece, Intellidex director Peter Attard Montalto wrote that refunds were not feasible given that the gantries are still operational and are billing motorists every day.
He described the refund proposal as a waste of time and something “that will never happen”, touting it as another headline-grabbing promise made in the run-up to election season.
Montalto’s comments seemed to have been spot on, as the extension of the e-toll collections contract combined with the lack of any plans from government regarding the end of the scheme points to the fact that e-tolls will stay around for another six months, if not much longer.
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