National Treasury has decided it would not be prudent to discuss the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral), or the Gauteng e-tolling project, at the Parliamentary portfolio committee meeting on finance today.
It says discussions with committee chairperson Thaba Mufamadi led to an agreement that discussions around these matters would not be possible.
“Cabinet, at its meeting on Thursday last week, appointed a committee, which is chaired by deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe, to coordinate all the work around the GFIP [Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project].
“This committee will move with urgency to ensure, among other things, Sanral's financial stability, determine an appropriate response to the North Gauteng High Court's ruling and other legal matters, and also meet with relevant stakeholders in order to find constructive solutions and seek to build consensus on outstanding matters.”
Treasury adds that the meeting convened on Friday, with relevant officials, to discuss the best possible way forward on the GFIP issue, is a signal of the urgency and the seriousness with which Cabinet views the matter.
“In addition, some of the issues that committee members may want National Treasury officials to clarify are issues that will be dealt with during the second leg of the court hearing into the e-tolling case. Given these circumstances, any comment by the National Treasury officials on the GFIP issue would neither be prudent nor appropriate. We would ask all South Africans to exercise patience. The Cabinet Committee will report as soon as possible on the progress of its work.”
Halt implications
Democratic Alliance shadow minister of finance Tim Harris says the official oppositionis disappointed by treasury's decision to not engage with the committee around the fiscal implications of the halt in the e-tolling project. “Questions around the e-tolling project are urgent and in the public interest.”
He adds that these concerns include what the effect will be on the fiscal framework and key debt-to-GDP numbers if National Treasury has to provide a backstop of taxpayers' money for all of Sanral's debt; what the implications are for other debt issued by state-owned enterprises if government has to step in to provide a backstop; and what the status of the R8 billion worth of unguaranteed government pensions invested in the project will be, if government does not provide a backstop.
Harris is also concerned about what such a decision would mean for the creditworthiness of other state-owned enterprises that have gone to the bond market; how Sanral's debt will be serviced in the absence of toll collection; and why the agency continues to “draw a cloak of secrecy over subcontracting relating to e-tolls, while South Africans are clearly looking for answers on who ultimately benefitted from the tolls”.
Youth burden
The African National Congress Youth League, at its National Executive Committee meeting this week, said it wants the e-toll system to be abolished.
“On the e-tolling saga, we would like to support the view of Cosatu [Congress of SA Trade Unions] to call for the total scrapping of the e-tolls, as these will undoubtedly increase the burden on the poor and the youth in particular.
“We call upon the ANC, as the legitimate leader of all sectors in society, to also undertake a critical review on why we fail to ensure we build consensus within broader society on these matters, thereby giving space to opportunistic forces to vilify our programmes under the guise that the ANC no longer upholds the values that the movement has embedded and fought for in this country.”
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