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E-Tolling critic slams new plans

eToll costing

Long-time e-toll opponent Rob Handfield – Jones has slammed the government’s latest proposals on e-tolls, saying they do not address the key flaws of the system. He said that government was trying to play the affordability card to neutralise those who objected to the way the system was implemented.

“Government has consistently avoided the key point which is that the implementation of the system was not only flawed, but arguably unlawful in certain ways,” he said. “They have tried to make the issue solely about affordability, when the elephant in the room is good governance and transparency.” He also said that the report of the Makhura Commission was opaque and contradictory. He said it often relied on speculative data and did not unpick the real-world issues of the manner of the system’s implementation. The report also did not address SANRAL’s mis-leading of the public, especially its loss of several cases at the Advertising Standards Authority.”

“Reducing the tariffs and caps now doesn’t mean they won’t be increased later and it won’t change public perception of SANRAL as a predatory organisation which rides roughshod over citizens. The reduced tariffs also make the system even more inefficient by increasing the ratio of collection costs as a percentage of total takings,” he added. “What government needs to do is learn from its mistakes and scrap the entire system. Roadbuilding should be funded from taxation which has negligible collection costs. Also, private enterprise should not be allowed to profit from managing social infrastructure.”

Handfield – Jones was also sharply critical of linking e-toll accounts to licence renewals without any mention being made of due process or the intervention of a court of law. “We have seen from past experience that SANRAL’s billing system is a shambles, with people being charged for gantry passes they didn’t make, and cloned vehicles rampant on our roads,” he said. “Now, it appears licence discs will be unlawfully withheld while users are forced to fight SANRAL. I predict there will be an enormous number of road users who simply will not renew their licence discs. With the tragic state of law enforcement and low levels of fine payment, I doubt this will present any obstacle to those who refuse to pay e-tolls on the perfectly rational basis that they were improperly implemented to start with.”

He said the benefits of roadbuilding were unconnected to any particular funding method and that loans taken to build roads could be repaid more cost-effectively from taxation. “The bottom line is this: if these roads had been funded from the fuel levy, they would have been paid for by now,” Handfield – Jones concluded.

 

For further information, contact:

Rob Handfield – Jones
rob@driving.co.za
083 260 8663
www.driving.co.za

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