Sanral has hit out at what it calls the Democratic Alliance’s politicisation of the issue of road infrastructure in general and the user-pay principle.
Sanral’s head of communications, Vusi Mona, reacting to the DA’s “shock at hearing at a portfolio committee meeting in Cape Town that Sanral was considering new toll roads”, said that it was a long process before a road was declared a toll road.
“That happens after Ministerial approval and environmental impact assessment studies have been done. Furthermore, it would not happen without consulting with the affected communities and conducting socio-economic impact studies,” Mona said.
The roads mentioned by Nazir Alli at the portfolio committee were being considered as “potential” tolls roads, Mona said. “If studies show that they are not viable and tolling is not the best way to finance them, then the potential is dead.
“We will never promote projects that are not viable. We are not building new toll roads. The only two toll roads in the pipeline are the N1-N2 Winelands and the N2 Wildcoast,” said Mona.
