Roads agency Sanral is evaluating tenders it received for the continued management of e-tolls after its existing contract with Electronic Tolling Collections (ETC) expires next month, suggesting the government plans to continue with the controversial system.

However, Ayanda Allie Paine, spokeswoman for transport minister Fikile Mbalula, stressed on Monday that everything continues as normal until cabinet’s final announcement on e-tolls.

Paine said this also means that Sanral will be remiss to not issue any tender or advertise anything in line with its processes.

“The law must take its course and we must continue as normal up until that date and, if it is scrapped, then deal with it from that point going back — but if not, then we do continue,” she said.

Mbalula said at a media briefing on 31 October that a decision on e-tolls would be taken by cabinet within the next two weeks (by November 14, last Thursday).

Paine said on Monday that the report on e-tolls has been sent through for cabinet processes and that it will decide when it will be up for discussion and when that decision will be made.

“At the moment, the process is out of the transport department’s hands and is now subject to formal processes at cabinet,” she said.

Delayed

Paine said Mbalula did previously appear before cabinet, which required the task team to do a bit more work and extended the time period by two weeks, which became three weeks because the investment summit delayed the cabinet meeting by a week.

She said cabinet did not include e-tolls in its discussions at last week’s meeting, but “my understanding is that it will be included at some point before the end of the year”.

Sanral spokesman Vusi Mona confirmed that the current contract awarded to ETC, which is owned by Austria-based firm Kapsch, has not been extended again and that Sanral issued a tender on 19 August. ETC’s contract was extended last year for a further year until 2 December.

Mona said Sanral is in the tender evaluation phase in accordance with the tender programme, according to which a new contractor must be appointed to commence work by 3 December. He said the contract is for a period of 72 months, with an option to extend for another 24 months.

“Provision has been made for a handover period in the tender programme to ensure that there is no interruption of e-toll services,” he said.

Commenting on what will happen to ETC employees if another company is awarded the contract, Mona said the bulk of the ETC staff is protected in terms of section 197 of the Labour Relations Act.

Wayne Duvenage, CEO of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), is interested to know how many companies tendered. “We are very intrigued by who wanted to tender for a failed scheme. We can’t see anyone tendering apart from ETC.”

Duvenage said Outa will also be interested in what the tender was for, the amounts that were tendered, and by whom.

Mbalula stressed in October that the task team President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed to report to him on the options available for e-tolls, is not working on a scheme to implement e-tolls in terms of the current scheme, but on a reconfigured approach that could entail non-payment.

He said more than seven proposals on the e-toll scheme are being considered.

The first and most popular option involves the cancellation of the e-toll scheme and the withdrawal of declaration for Gauteng Freeway Improvement Programme (GFIP) phase one road work, he said.

The other options are:

A partial shadow toll, a scheme where government’s subsidy contribution is less than 100%;
Selling the GFIP to a private concessionaire;
The introduction of a public transport fund that will prioritise public transport;
A hybrid funding model comprising a combination of taxes, such as a fuel levy and licences, to subsidise toll fees;
A further dispensation and physical toll plaza installations; and
To implement the e-toll scheme as it was intended.

Mbalula said the total unpaid toll fees will peak at R67-billion, and will require an annual allocation of R2-billion from government to service the 30-year repayment period for the outstanding debt, after government has also written off all outstanding toll debts.