SANRAL’s anti-development threats are outrageous

"It was a ludicrous idea for SANRAL to accept an unsolicited bid to toll the Western Cape's freeways in the first place", says Wayne Duvenage, Chairman of theOpposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (OUTA). "To make matters worse, SANRAL then failed to conduct a meaningful public participation process, just as they did in Gauteng, which has led to the collapse of the scheme, since its inception two years ago."

The high costs of toll administration, the exorbitant construction costs, and the guaranteed enrichment of a concessionaire consortium, can only be dubbed as an outrageous scheme, to say the least. "The judge certainly got it right in a judgement which sheds light on the incorrect and appalling procedures implemented by SANRAL, who have far too often, ignored the very people expected to pay the unjust tolls linked to important public infrastructural development".

To date, SANRAL have been extremely remiss in some of their research and extremely lax in their involvement of society and other structures of Government, in a number of their projects, which have given rise to many court challenges and a need for costly corrective action.

Furthermore, OUTA's research indicates that there are many questions to be asked of SANRAL, in regard to their unsolicited bids and past regulatory amendments to the SANRAL Act, which have left the public poorer and a few concessionaires a lot richer. The authorities actions are effectively introducing a new questionable and unjustified tax on the people of this country.