Starting today (November 2) Gauteng road users are eligible for a 60% reduction of their historic e-toll debt, the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) said in a statement over the weekend.
However, the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) hit back in a statement of their own yesterday (Sunday), calling this second phase a “farce”, noting that it “doesn’t change anything”.
Outa has now launched its new ‘e-Toll Defence Umbrella’ campaign, aimed at providing legal support for all of its contributing members should they be summonsed for non-payment of e-tolls.
Said Outa chairman, Wayne Duvenage: “We always said that applying extortionist and punitive tariffs was never going to be an effective tactic for Sanral to apply in the first place. The majority of the motoring public have rejected the scheme, not because of the tariffs, but because the scheme is unjust and irrational. If the Gauteng motorists were sold on the scheme in the first place, they would have gone out and fitted e-tags to enjoy the discounted rate from the start.”
According to Duvenage the reduced monthly cap also did not change the exorbitant costs of collection, which came in at over R1 billion a year and enriched foreign companies.
“We believe a few people may succumb to Sanral’s new carrot, but it will not push their current low 25% compliance levels to much more than 40%, which was where (it) was in mid-2014, and at those levels the scheme remains a massive failure as a user pays mechanism,” he said.
Sanral’s head of communications, Vusi Mona, said in a statement that the new e-toll dispensation – announced by deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa in May – was being phased in and changes had been made to the electronic systems “to ensure a seamless transition”.
Among the changes that are already in place is a uniform rate of 30% per kilometre for light vehicles and a 50% reduction in the monthly maximum for registered account holders.
