Cape tolls will be three times Gauteng's

©Suzanne Tucker via 123RF

This was the City of Cape Town's argument in its showdown with the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) in the High Court in Cape Town yesterday. The city wants the toll project to be set aside, arguing that Sanral did not follow proper procedure in deciding to go ahead with it.

The city says the tolling of the N1 and N2 in the Western Cape should be scrapped as it is not economically viable and that decisionmakers did not consider vital information such as the projected costs of the project and the socioeconomic effects of tolling on the residents of the province.

Socioeconomic impacts of tolling not considered

City of Cape Town legal counsel Geoff Budlender said the projected costs of the project had escalated from R1.653bn in March 2000 to R44.970bn in March 2010 (2010 values, excluding value-added tax). This is an increase of 2,620% over 10 years. The information was not presented to or considered by the decision-makers.

"The one thing that is absolutely clear is that no decision-maker ever considered the socioeconomic impacts of tolling," said Budlender. "There is no policy, not even nonbinding policy, which provides that national roads must as a matter of course be funded through tolling, without regard to the specific circumstances.

"This application is also not about what would be the best way to finance the upgrading of the highways, if upgrading is to be undertaken. Rather, it is about the failure of the various decisionmakers to take their decisions in accordance with the requirements of the law. One of those requirements is the duty to consider alternatives to tolling."

Argues agains toll

Budlender said the Sanral board and the national ministers of transport and environmental affairs had not considered the ramifications of the tolling plan. Budlender argued that the public will, over the 30-year concession period, pay between R44.9bn and R48.4bn in toll fees.

If Sanral undertook the road upgrades, and operated and maintained the highways on a nontoll basis, the cost would be R22.5bn (2010 values, excluding value added tax).

The city argues the then national environmental affairs minister signed off on the project without considering its socioeconomic effect; the transport minister failed to consider the merits and effects of tolling; and Sanral's board was unable to produce a record of its decision to toll the roads - suggesting that CEO Nazir Alli had made the decision to toll on his own, a violation of the Sanral Act.

Source: Business Day