New Sanral board 'provides opportunity to rethink tolling'

The term of office of the current South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) board ends at the end of the month, while the agency is battling opposition from business, trade unions, opposition parties and civil society over the inflationary effect of tolls.

Kalipa said the new mandate needed to provide for alternate ways of funding and maintenance for provincial roads.

"The new board must offer advice on the objections of our people to the toll," said Kalipa.

Ndebele has ordered Sanral to halt any future tolling projects ahead of a road-funding summit to be convened this month.

This followed criticism by Deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin that the department had ceded major decisions to Sanral, which is a nonpolitical entity.

Gauteng transport MEC Ismail Vadi said there were lessons to be learned from the toll roads saga, but the reality was that the upgraded highways had to be paid for.

The first phase of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project is almost complete and tolling is scheduled to begin in February after being delayed twice.

The project covers about 560km of the freeway network.

"When we look back ... we might have many views about what had happened, but the fact of the matter is that these roads have already been upgraded and the project is almost complete," Vadi said. The government had bonds to repay on the first phase of the project and those funds had to be generated.

"We have got to repay R17,5bn, so the 'user pays' principle will apply. And the minister has been sensible in exempting public transport so that it doesn't pinch the poor.

"He has brought down the tariffs in instances and from a financial point of view, I don't think he can move any further." Any review of Sanral's mandate was Ndebele's prerogative, Vadi said.

Transport spokesman Logan Maistry said while various options for funding would be discussed at the upcoming roads summit, the new board would be given time to look at all issues pertaining to Sanral in order to take its mandate forward. "The board will be given time to look at what works and what doesn't work," he said.

During a public participation process in July, business associations and road hauliers argued that toll roads were an expensive way to pay for new roads and suggested a ringfenced fuel levy would be a cheaper way to fund roads.

Sanral has been forced to halt its monthly bond auctions as the government's flip-flopping on toll-road policy has scared off potential investors.

The agency had raised about R300m a month to fund its roadbuilding programmes through the bond auctions, which were usually "oversubscribed - more than double", chief financial officer Inge Mulder said last month.

Sanral had a cash buffer to help it ride out the period of uncertainty while the state engaged the public to find alternatives to tolling.

It has urged Gauteng's citizens to register for e-tolling, but the Southern African Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association, whose members run fleets totalling about 450000 vehicles, has decided to boycott registration.

SA has a backlog of R149bn in road infrastructure and the current projections for the fuel levy's contribution to road-building budgets forecasts shortfalls in excess of R1bn in each of the next two fiscal years.

Source: Business Day