The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (OUTA) has condemned the South African Roads Agency Limited’s (SANRAL) lack of public consultation over the latest Gauteng Freeway Improvements Project (GFIP) regulations.
In a statement, OUTA said the latest GFIP regulations were released on May 24 without any announcement or public notification./p>
“On such an emotive matter, one would think their web site would have clear links on their home and advertisements in the press, inviting the public to comment on these proposed tariffs and regulations,” the statement said.
“We are not surprised and have come to expect this lack of open communication and transparency from SANRAL, a state owned enterprise that has ignored the input, insights and will of the people for too long,” said Wayne Duvenage, chairman of OUTA.
The new GFIP regulations include the reduction of the ZAR550 (US$57) by ZAR100 (US$10) to ZAR450 (US$47) for A2 class vehicles.
“Recently, SANRAL have indicated that 96.3 per cent of users will pay under ZAR300 (US$31) in attempt to lure the road-users into ‘getting tagged’ as they put it. This use of averages is very misleading, as the amount due by thousands of regular commuters from Tshwane (Pretoria) to Johannesburg or from West to East will be will over ZAR300 per month,” said OUTA.
OUTA believes SANRAL is expecting a large portion of revenue to be generated by users who will be exceeding the ZAR300 threshold, “hence the modest decrease to only ZAR450”.
“We are also interested to know how SANRAL arrives at the ZAR100 reduction and how they feel this has addressed the thousands of objections from road users,” said Duvenage.
OUTA has called on both the Department of Transport and SANRAL to provide feedback regarding the last public engagement sessions, which took place in November last year. OUTA also called on authorities to set up more public discussions on the latest regulations.
“What they blindly ignore is the fact that Gauteng road users are angry about being charged twice for their roads (fuel levies and general taxes plus tolls) and are further punished by paying VAT on the toll charges,” said Duvenage.
In conclusion OUTA believes “SANRAL will continue to push for implementation at all costs even though the enforcement procedures by implication have not been finalised”.
