"There’s no sign that the opposition to tolling Gauteng’s highways is exhausted by its long campaign. Evidence is mounting that the entire project may collapse amid widespread civil disobedience, administrative challenges and legal obstacles. The latest evidence that all is not well is the inconsistency in reported e-tag sales. Anti-toll activists on Twitter have distributed a photograph of sales points open for business with not a soul in sight. Meanwhile, the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) has contradicted former transport minister Sbu Ndebele, by announcing that sales by April 2013 had reached 250 000, which is only half the number of the half a million Ndebele claimed exactly a year earlier. Since then, the number has stood mysteriously at 600 000 for several months, suggesting they’re making them up as they go along. ITWeb has also uncovered a sensational case study from Portugal, where a similar system is mired in controversy, non-compliance and financial woes. Many people have simply stopped using the roads. One report estimates that road usage has halved. Of the remainder, an increasing number simply isn’t bothering to pay the tolls. The operator, Estradas de Portugal, seems unable to provide accurate billing at a cost lower than the amount of the tolls. The company has called the situation ‘unsustainable’. The ITWeb story lists a wave of headlines documenting both pre-launch resistance and post-launch chaos. One of them notes a sudden spike in number plate thefts, while the Justice Project of South Africa observes that there are already an estimated 100 000 stolen number plates in Gauteng. Delay tactics Cosatu has described the e-toll scheme as ‘daylight robbery’, and is continuing its protest actions against Sanral. At its most recent go-slow along the highways, police cars were reportedly among the protest vehicles, alongside several hundred private vehicles and minibus taxis. Meanwhile, many private business owners report that they’re conspiring among themselves to resist the implementation of e-tolls. Besides postponing their e-tag purchases as long as they legally can, they’ve discussed delay tactics such as demanding copious documentation as proof of indebtedness, including photographs and other supporting information. The hope is to make the scheme impossibly expensive to administer, and thus bring it down. The primary anti-toll organisation, the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa), has raised several million in funding just in the last month, including a significant R1 million from the Democratic Alliance, which indicates unequivocal opposition support for the campaign. The Portuguese example should raise further concerns for Sanral, since it will be saddled with massive unfunded infrastructure debts if it cannot meet revenue targets. It expects a 93 percent compliance rate, but in Portugal, compliance in 2012 was only at 81 percent, and that doesn’t count the motorists who have taken to B-roads, causing a year-on-year revenue decline of a staggering 74 percent in 2012, and no signs of the downward trend reversing in 2013. It has already seen its debt downgraded by international ratings agencies, over concerns that it will be unable to fund its R20 billion debt obligations. Uprising In 2011, I was bold enough to take to CAR magazine to declare e-tolling a done deal, and the public protests as too little too late. I have to concede I was wrong. My hat is off to Wayne Duvenhage and his Outa campaign. In defence of the public’s right to use taxpayer-funded infrastructure without double-paying, they have stirred an apathetic nation into a veritable uprising. Between civil disobedience, non-payment, highway blockades and administrative nightmares, the future is bleak for e-tolling. "
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 08:14:27 +0000
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