The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) will be about R5 billion in the red by December next year as it is racking up debt of at least R200 million a month on the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project.
In the first four months of the controversial e-highway system going live, the roads agency effectively wrote off R1.123 billion because the overdue amount was not recognised as the agency did not anticipate being able to collect it.
Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) chairman Wayne Duvenage says, at the rate Sanral is going, it will be around R2.4 billion in debt because of the project by 3 December, an amount that will escalate to about R5 billion by the end of next year. This, he says, is because the agency's debt grows at about R200 million a month.
Mounting unhappiness
Sanral's own annual report seems to bear out Duvenage's statement, as it charged motorists R2.27 billion between December and the end of March, of which just under half - or more than R250 million a month - was not recognised.
In addition, Sanral CEO Nazir Ali yesterday reportedly told a panel - convened to look into the socio-economic effects of e-tolling - that the agency was owed R2 billion, and compliance had fallen to 30%. Based on figures from the agency's annual report, compliance was just under 50% at the end of March.
Duvenage notes Ali's reported statement is in line with Outa's own calculations, which show compliance has dropped to 30% from around 40%, a drop-off attributed to Gauteng MEC David Makhura's panel. "The system is unworkable without 95% compliance."
The agency's mouthpiece Vusi Mona this morning would not confirm compliance levels or the amount it is owed, referring ITWeb instead to its presentation to be made later this morning. He did, however, note the agency is not in dire straits because of the project as it accounts for less than 10% of its tolled projects.
Mona also noted the auditor-general had not put up any red flags about its ability to continue as a going concern, and the agency raised R415 million in a bond auction yesterday.
Wary investors
However, the agency yesterday issued a statement saying its ability to raise funds had been "negatively impacted by the uncertainty created by the Gauteng government's decision to set up an e-toll review panel".
Sanral was initially not going to present at the panel, but in a last-minute about-turn decided to put its case forward to "clarify some of the assumptions and unfortunate untruths that characterised some of the presentations done so far". The bulk of those who presented were against the system.
The agency, which had initially wanted to raise R500 million, says the lack of interest among investors at yesterday's auction was unfortunate "given the presentations made to the panel by the minister of transport, Dipuo Peters, and senior government officials over the past two days".
Peters has expressed support for Sanral and said e-tolling would continue "in terms of decisions taken by the Cabinet", says Sanral in a statement.
The next auction is scheduled for February.
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