The SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) has been running a marketing campaign touting e-tolls on Gauteng's roads as pleasantly inexpensive, but opposition to the system says recent newspaper adverts are a "pathetic attempt" to hoodwink the public.
Sanral has published an advertisement in various publications that positions the financial implications of e-tolls on motorists as "better than expected". About 80% of road users, says Sanral, will pay less than R100 per month.
While statistics were presented at a media briefing in November last year, Sanral stepped up its e-tag marketing campaign in January, and continues to promote what it says is the value and ease of registering for an e-tag (which will qualify road users for a minimum discount of 48%). The agency has used various advertising mediums, including print, radio, digital and television.
In its recent print advert, the roads agency says it used its licence plate recognition technology to track actual usage by 2.5 million vehicles on the Gauteng e-roads and garnered the following statistics: 78.5% of road users will pay under R100 per month, 12.8% will pay between R100 and R200, 5% from R200 to R300, and only 3.7% will end up paying R300 and up to the current set monthly cap of R550 per month. "...what we found was even better than we had hoped," states the advertisement.
Sanral emphasises these indicative tariffs stand on condition that road users "get an e-tag and register an e-toll account". According to the agency, the figures were calculated on actual trips per light vehicle identified, using the tariffs currently under review by the Department of Transport (DOT).
Will not be fooled
While government has won the right to implement its e-toll system - comprising 49 gantries across Gauteng - the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (OUTA) has won the right for leave to appeal, which will be heard in the Supreme Court of Appeal in the third quarter of this year.
OUTA chairperson Wayne Duvenage has strongly castigated Sanral's advertising campaign, saying Sanral is trying to pull the wool over the South African public's eyes. "It is a very tactical move on their part and it is pathetic, it's a farce. But it doesn't matter how [e-tolls are advertised], the public are not fools and they must not try to fool us."
Duvenage says it is wrong of Sanral to market in this manner, and suggests it will only serve to upset the public in the long run. "One must be very wary when putting forward stats like this. You have to remember that, of the total registered road users (about 3.5 million motorists) in Gauteng, most of them don't even touch the highway. Only 2.5 million actually get on to the highway and of those only about one million are regular road users who maybe pass through a gantry once or twice a month. All [Sanral] is going to do, is upset the commuter that does not form part of its statistic base."
At the end of the day, says Duvenage, he does not believe Sanral is going to manage to entice the public, which is by and large vehemently opposed to the notion of yet another tax, to purchase e-tags.
"No matter which way you cut it, society loses. We are paying R1.5-R1.7 billion a year for a system that will never have full compliance. This is a life-long issue. It is not like the public is going to stop paying e-tolls when road upgrades are paid off and [Sanral] is not going to stop increasing rates."
Sanral says open road tolling will become operational across Gauteng, despite the upcoming appeal and public opposition. The DOT, to which Sanral reports, maintains due process was followed and that, armed with a High Court judgement deeming e-tolling legal, the government can and will proceed with the system as soon as the E-toll Bill becomes law with the signature of president Jacob Zuma.
* According to Sanral's e-toll calculator, a light vehicle motorist (with an e-tag) travelling to Pretoria and back, from the N1 Rivonia to the N1 Atterbury, will pay R473 per month (making return trips 20 days a month). The same calculation, based on the motorist not having an e-tag, yields an amount of R914.60 per month.
Update: Sanral has confirmed e-tolling in Gauteng is set to commence within the next two months.
The time frame emerged during recent discussions between Sanral and government. Vusi Mona, the road agency's head of communications, says the only thing Sanral is waiting for, is the completion of the Parliamentary process, half of which is already done. "As soon as the National Council of Provinces finalises the Transport and Related Matters Amendment Bill, the Bill will go back to the National Assembly for adoption.
"Transport Minister Ben Martins will then announce the tariffs, which will be followed by the necessary notice periods. That whole process will take about two months to complete. Thereafter e-tolling will start."
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