E-toll Bill shouldn’t have been passed – DA
JOBURG- On 2 March, the DA made their latest plans to fight e-tolls known.
The party’s Gauteng Premier candidate Mmusi Maimane said the DA was heading to court this week to have the passing of the E-Tolling Bill declared unconstitutional.
“I will be in court representing Gauteng residents who have expressed an overwhelming majority of opposition to e-tolling,” Maimane said.
According to him the party believed the Transport Laws and Related Matters Amendment Bill (E-tolling Bill) was incorrectly passed by Parliament and signed into law by President Jacob Zuma.
“If the case is successful, the E-Tolling Bill will need to be sent back to Parliament to deliberate on for a second time. The DA will then oppose the E-tolling Bill in Parliament and every legislature. We will also offer the ANC a chance to vote against the Bill and in favour of the public’s immense opposition to e-tolling. A majority vote against the Bill would defeat e-tolling once and for all.”
Their court battle will include the plea that the E-tolling Bill was incorrectly passed by the National Assembly because it was tagged as a section 75 Bill (debated in Parliament only) and not a section 76 Bill (debated in Parliament and provinces).
“The people of Gauteng were therefore denied a voice in the passing of the E-tolling Bill due to it not appearing before the provincial legislature.”
Another point the DA plans to argue is that e-tolling affects urban planning, public transport and traffic regulations. According to the DA, the Bill should have been debated in provincial legislatures as well.
After the National Assembly has passed a section 76 Bill, each provincial legislature must deliberate on a voting mandate for their respective delegates in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). Each provincial delegation in the NCOP must vote according to the decision taken by their provincial legislature.
“This gives the Gauteng legislature, and potentially a new DA majority there after 2014, the chance to vote against this legislation,” Maimane said.
The case is due to be heard in the Western Cape High Court on 4 and 5 March.
“If the DA wins this case in the High Court, the matter will automatically be referred to the Constitutional Court where the E-tolling Bill may be declared unconstitutional,” Maimane concluded.
DA PART OF THE BIGGER PICTURE
The political party is not alone, as the tolling system is still heavily opposed across the province.
Following Sanral’s CEO Nazir Alli’s interview on 28 February with John Robbie of Talk Radio 702, the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) notified the Public Protector of an additional allegation of dishonesty against Alli.
Alli said that the system was performing well, and thanked the over one million road users who had registered; he added that Sanral was now receiving “over R300 million per month, exceeding the target of R200 million”.
Outa questioned this statement, claiming it was likely fabricted and misleading in that the numbers made no sense.
According to Outa, if just over one million road users are e-tagged, out of approximately 2.5 million, how was it possible for Sanral to exceed their target of R200 million by 50 percent to achieve revenues of over R300 million? Outa claimed that Alli was implying that all the invoices transferred from the Transaction Clearing House (TCH) to the Violations Processing Centre (VPC) is collectable and part of his equation.
Outa believes that most of this revenue will not transpire into cash-flow for the e-toll system, leaving it short.
According to Outa, there were also numerous discrepancies between the values and targets espoused by the Sanral management.
“Mr Alli obviously has an interest to push the fact that e-tags are in active use and not in various store rooms or shop shelves, by playing word-games,” said John Clarke, spokesperson for Outa.
“While there may indeed be 1.2 million e-tags in circulation, our opinion is that less than 750 000 are in vehicles on the freeways. Our research has been further corroborated by intelligence received from reliable sources which back up our claims that as of end February, slightly less than 30 percent of vehicles driving on the Gauteng freeways were fitted with e-tags.”
Outa’s position paper titled E-tolling at an Impasse was released to the public last week and pointed out that if international examples were anything to go by, Sanral’s e-toll project for Gauteng’s freeways has been a dismal failure and will not survive in the medium-term.
