E-toll’s last stumbling block erased

E-tolling in Gauteng is imminent following the signing of the Transport Laws and Related Matters Amendment Bill into law by President Jacob Zuma last week. Despite an ongoing court case against e-tolling brought by the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (OUTA), the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) says with the bill now law road users in Gauteng are advised to register for e-tags sooner rather than later. “E-tolling will now become a reality,” said Sanral CEO, Nazir Alli. The newly signed Act will facilitate the upgrading and development of the transport infrastructure and public transport in the country by providing more effectively for the collection of toll; to amend the Cross-Border Road Transport Act of 1998; to empower the Cross-Border Road Transport Agency to collect toll on behalf of Sanral; to further provide for the differentiation in respect of the amount of toll that may be levied; to provide for the Minister of Transport to make regulations relating to specified toll-related matters; to provide for certain presumptions relating to the driving, operation and use of vehicles on a toll road and the use of electronic evidence to prove an alleged contravention of the SANRAL Act. E-toll’s last stumbling block erased Signing of the law will ease pressure There was no margin for error when Cape Town based Cape Crating last week took on the task of securing a 70 ton piece of oil and gas equipment on a vessel destined for Korea. Not only were Cape Crating responsible for the safe transport of the cargo from the premises of the manufacturer Belmet Marine to the dock, they were also tasked with securing it in the hold for its voyage to a Korean shipyard, said Owen Bottomley, managing director of Cape Crating. This massive piece of equipment, known in layman’s terms as a ‘Christmas tree handling apparatus’, is used in the oil and gas industry where it is fitted in the moon pool of a drill ship. – Liesl Venter Mammoth task Alli said he had never doubted the President would sign the Bill after it had become the centre of much controversy following President Zuma’s decision to delay signing after several questions around the tagging of the Bill were raised in Parliament. But, said Alli, the signing now brought a halt to all the speculation and erased the last stumbling block to the implementation of e-tolling. “The delay in the announcement of the toll commencement date had also put our toll portfolio under pressure. The signing of this law will ease the pressure and eliminate doubt in the minds of many road users who were waiting for certainty around e-tolling,” he said. “We are set to now meet with the Minister of Transport to discuss a commencement date, which will be announced soon.” OUTA have, however, reacted vehemently, saying that just because the bill had been passed, it did not mean that e-tolling would work. “We also still are awaiting the Supreme Court’s ruling on our appeal,” said the organisation’s chairman, Wayne Duvenhage. But, he said, even if they were to lose the court battle, Sanral’s biggest hurdle has yet to come, that being the “public’s buy-in and acceptance of its cumbersome and irrational plan”. Duvenage maintained that Sanral had not conducted a meaningful public engagement process prior to the decision to toll and that the high profit margins of the scheme (which OUTA estimates to be in excess of R650 million per annum) would place further pressure on Sanral.