Ian Ollis, the shadow minister of transport for the Democratic Alliance (DA), is calling for clarity on how e-tolling was pursued in South Africa despite the system having already failed in Portugal.
Ollis extended the call for clarity to the South African Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) and the Department of Transport (DoT), the two state entities behind e-tolling in South Africa.
“It can only be deduced from South Africa’s failure to learn from Portugal’s e-tolling woes, that neither SANRAL nor the Department of Transport conducted thorough research into the viability of e-tolling. If they did, they negligently opted to ignore the Portuguese example,” said Ollis.
Ollis added: “According to recent reports, as a result of lower than expected revenue from e-tolls, Portugal’s e-tolling system has been so unsustainable that the country’s road chief has warned that there will not be enough money for road maintenance.”
Based on Portugal’s failure to successfully implement e-tolling, Ollis believes this is a clear indication e-tolling will also fail in South Africa.
Ollis said, according to António Ramalho, Estradas de Portugal’s (Portugal’s roads agency) chief, it had failed to collect more than ZAR386 million (US$39.094 million) from e-toll transgressors.
“They found that on average 19 per cent of toll-road users fail to pay for using the toll roads and that e-tolls have effectively forced thousands of cars onto secondary roads. He further admitted that expected revenue from e-tolls is far below those anticipated by initial studies.” said Ollis.
In conclusion, Ollis said: “Contrary to SANRAL’s repeated assertions, e-tolling does not create funding for road maintenance, all it will do is create a massive administration burden, undermine economic growth, hurt the poor, and ultimately result in job losses.”
Furthermore, Ollis called on SANRAL and the DoT to “do the right thing” and scrap e-tolling.
