Reader: E-toll bribes?
2012-10-30 11:51
WHO WILL BENIFIT FROM E-TOLLING?: Reader Hans thinks that the e-tolling project won't be benificial to South African drivers.
After months of delays and talks with goverment, the Gauteng e-toll system will be implemented, the transport minister reported.
We've had many responses to the etolling announcement. Reader Hans van Breukelen emailed us to share his thoughts on the Gauteng e-toll plan:
Sanral have recently published the list of 34 contractors that are/were involved with the E-Toll project.
FUEL LEVY CHEAPER?
Many of these contracts were signed some years ago and it is obvious that the kick-backs received by the well-connected people, have long been spent.
If Sanral now cancels e-tolling and replaces it with a fuel levy, many companies are going to want to reclaim their kick-backs, which could be extremely embarrassing for some high-placed individuals.
Our minister of finance said that we must be prudent with our expenditure – so why are we going to pay billions of rand to an Austrian company to collect tolls, if we could have collected it cheaply ourselves?
Again, too many well-connected people have benefitted from this deal.
In conclusion, as virtually every South African is dependent on our national roads as our economy and infrastructure are integrated with road transport (food deliveries, fuel etc.) – I propose that we phase out all 25 current toll roads around the country, and use the fuel levy system to finance Sanral.
It will be cheaper for the country as a whole, but alas, the well-connected, who have secured lucrative toll collection contracts around the country, will squeal like stuck pigs. So again, the man in the street (and the poor) have to keep paying for inefficiencies.
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