The gantries on Gauteng’s e-tolls will be turned off once a binding agreement is signed between the Gauteng provincial government and national government, finance minister Enoch Godongwana said on Wednesday in a written reply to a question by DA MP Dennis Ryder.
Ryder wanted to know when the gantries would be turned off considering that an announcement had been made that e-tolls in Gauteng would come to an end. He also wanted to know the reasons for the delay.
Godongwana said the binding agreement between the Gauteng government and national government would deal with the province’s financial commitments to paying off the debt, its contribution to the backlog of maintenance on the network and the administrative costs associated with the recovery of tolls from defaulting users.
The minister said there are two outstanding issues related to the signing of a binding agreement.
The first concerns the provincial funding sources for the backlog, maintenance and rehabilitation of the network and the duration over which this would be done. The second relates to clarity on the province’s position and the costs associated with recovering funds from defaulting road users who did not pay tolls while the system was operational.
The provincial government has agreed to pay 30% of the outstanding debt as at October 31 2022, over a period of no longer than five years. “The financing costs associated with this payment will be in line with the duration over which the provincial contribution will take place,” Godongwana said.
In the 2022 medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) Godongwana announced an alternative funding arrangement to address the financing of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project. The government would cover 70% of the debt and interest-bearing obligations of the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) and the Gauteng government 30%. Sanral debt at the time amounted to R47bn.
The MTBPS allocated R23.7bn to Sanral to pay off government-guaranteed debt subject to certain conditions.
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