Following the result of the recent Supreme Court of Appeal decision in SANRAL vs The City of Cape Town it was declared that Capetonians will not have to pay e-tolls.
Yet, when Gauteng drivers went to court for the same reason, there case was dismissed – why?
In a Dispute Resolution Report posted on Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr’s website, legal expert Pieter Conradie revealed why this was the case.
Put simply, it’s because they hadn’t started building the e-toll infrastructure in the Western Cape yet.
The circumstances of the Cape Town case were different to those in the OUTA case. The road works have not commenced in Cape Town and the amount (already spent) of approximately R136 million is relatively small in comparison to the huge costs of the entire SANRAL project in Gauteng worth R22 billion.
In the OUTA case the upgrades of the highways had already been completed and were due to be paid for by the time OUTA launched the application to review and interdict the implementation of the e-toll system.
Without e-tolling, SANRAL’s R22 billion debt, along with interest which was “running at an alarming rate”, would remain unpaid.
Add to this the fact that Gauteng bought its case “5 years too late” and the SCA found that the review application was unreasonable and that it was contrary to public interest to attempt to “undo history”.
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Sanrals’ secrecy was responsible for the delay in OUTAs’ case. The gantries were already up before people new what they were going to be used for. Many people, like myself, thought that they were to show safety information, warn of accidents, indicate lane closures or changes of speed limit etc. like you see overseas.
With regard to the R22 billion, by Nazir Allis’ own admission they overspent by 152% so surely that means that they could have “improved” 52% more road than they actually did.
The “debt still remains unpaid” as the majority of Gauteng drivers aren’t paying e-tolls. When the fuel levy goes up we moan but we pay as we have no option. E-tolls requires billions of Rands worth of electronic equipment and the staff to run it just to create an invoice which in mine and many houses goes straight in the bin. Whereas with a fuel levy I would be paying in advance i.e. “user pay”. And why does it matter where the money comes from as long as the roads are paid for?
In the case of Sanral vs the Western Cape it was said that Sanral has to go back to the drawing board and seek public approval and participation. Where was that as far as Gauteng drivers are concerned?