The controversial Gauteng e-tolling project, which on Thursday was postponed for a month, has hit another speed bump as the South African Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) has been stopped from collecting tolls.This morning, Judge Bill Prinsloo gave his verdict on an urgent application that was lodged by the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (OUTA), which argued that the SA Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) was not ready to implement the system.
The official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, says in a statement that it “is delighted with today’s ruling by Judge Prinsloo that an interdict against Sanral implementing the hugely unpopular Gauteng tolls, should be granted”.
Further review
“Although only a prima face case has been proved and much work still lies ahead for the OUTA team, this ruling at least opens the door for stopping this inexplicably costly toll collection system,” it says.
DA is optimistic that given all the facts, the review court will find that the most cost effective method of paying for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) and other urban tolling projects, is via a dedicated fuel levy as the DA has contended all along.
The Justice Project of South Africa (JPSA) this afternoon tweeted that OUTA had been victorious. The JPSA has previously found several flaws within the proposed tolling system.
Yusuf Amramjee, chairman of the national press club, tweeted that Sanral had been restrained from collecting tolls. An order as to costs was reserved, he noted.
Last Wednesday, the judge ruled that the matter was urgent, as the controversial project was set to kick in on Monday.
Arguments on the merits of the case continued on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday and a ruling was handed down this afternoon after the Pretoria High Court reconvened this morning for the judgement.
Hold off
On Thursday, the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) agreed to ask the stake to put off the implementation by a month.
Department of Transport DG George Mahlalela said implementation of the e-tolling would be put off until 30 May to “finalise regulations following input on regulatory and administrative issues from the public and interested stakeholders,” according to a statement.
Cosatu and the ANC’s joint statement said they had collectively agreed to ask government to postpone the implementation of the e-toll collection system by a month. This will give the task team more time to explore alternative funding mechanisms.
Punitive fees?
Sanral’s proposed fee structure has come under fire as “alternate users” of the e-toll system were set to pay significantly higher tariffs determined at three times the standard tariff.
This information was detailed in Government Gazette Volume 562, no 35263, earlier this month, and the Democratic Alliance (DA) said the concept of an “alternate user” is introduced for the first time.
In the gazette, Sanral describes five different types of e-toll users, where previously users were only outlined as those with and those without e-tags.
The first type of user is the one that has an e-tag and is registered for e-tolling, the second is a user who has an e-tag, but has not registered for the system, and the third is a vehicle licence number (VLN) user who registers for the system, but does not have an e-tag.
The fourth type of user is the one who does not qualify for any other category. Also, e-tag and VLN users are qualified as alternate if there aren’t sufficient funds in their accounts at the time of the transaction.
The fifth type is a day-pass user. The tariffs for the day pass are R30 for motorcycles, R50 for standard vehicles, R125 for class B medium vehicles and R250 for heavy vehicles.
The gazette says an alternate user who pays within the grace period of seven days is entitled to a discount.
So if the user falls within the e-tag or VLN categories, but does not meet the criteria at the time of the e-toll transaction due to insufficient funds, they will pay the normal fee for their category if they pay within the grace period.
Time of day and frequent user discounts also apply to alternate users who pay within that period. However, the cap of R550 for standard vehicles does not apply to alternate users.
