Govt claims unity over e-tolling

Government has denied a “supposed clash” between transport minister Sibusiso Ndebele and Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane over e-toll charges.

“Government would like to put it on record that there is no clash between minister Ndebele and premier Mokonyane - or any other clash within the leadership of government - about the soon-to-be-launched tollgate system in Gauteng,” says the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS).

Ndebele says road maintenance is necessary and an innovative means to pay for this had to be found.

Meanwhile, the ANC Gauteng provincial working committee thinks it's disastrous and the Gauteng portfolio committee on transport thinks the fees are extremely high.

The GCIS quotes Mokonyane as saying the local government supports the “need for public consultation and the need for an affordable, reliable and safe public transport system, including the use of tolling as a cost recovery mechanism”, in her state of the province address yesterday.

However, she also said the local government has “observed with serious concern the announcement on the implementation of the tolling strategy, which has been made in isolation from a comprehensive, viable, public transport plan and with a lack of consultation, in particular with the Gauteng Provincial Government”.

Mokonyane said government is not opposed to the idea of tolling as a cost recovery mechanism required to pay off loans developed during the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, but it is concerned about the implementation, including the pricing and economic impact.

She will meet with Ndebele this morning to discuss the pricing, lack of consultation and other issues around the tolling system.

Apart from the uproar the lack of consultation caused among citizens, opposition parties and trade unions, it is also creating a legal mess for the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral).

North Gauteng High Court judge Bert Bam passed a judgement this month that stops Sanral from constructing a toll gantry on a section of freeway near Centurion.

Bam made the judgement on two accounts, according to his clerk Piet Smith. One was that Sanral did not comply with the National Environmental Management Act (Nema) and the other was a lack of consultation with affected parties.

Japie van Niekerk, chief executive of New Africa Developments, the company that filed the interdict against Sanral, says the problem was that the gantry was being positioned in such a way that it blocked advertising on its building.

He says the negotiations continued until September and, although Sanral didn't have ministerial approval to build the gantry there, it still went ahead.

“They told us they'll do what they want to do and will just go ahead and they don't see why they should listen to us. We then got an interdict against them and now we got the decision for them to stop building.”

Van Niekerk says the judge agreed with the company's submission, saying Sanral didn't consult with any of the interested and affected parties.

“What it boils down to is that the judge stopped Sanral, because they didn't consult properly and didn't do the impact assessment,” says Smith.

“We ask for a demolishing of that gantry,” says Van Niekerk.

“We have no vendetta against Sanral. We just want them to build that gantry in such a place that it doesn't affect us and we don't lose income. We stand a chance to lose income and we have a constitutional right to protect that.”

However, Smith says the judgement is an interim order and so Sanral only has to stop construction of the gantry, but does not have to tear it down.

Sanral had not responded to ITWeb's queries by the time of publication.