Civil rights organisation AfriForum called on Sanral and the government to scrap the planned Gauteng tolls during a presentation to the Sanral board in Pretoria this morning. According to AfriForum, it is untenable that approximately a third of the expenditure on Gauteng highways is spent on the ability to recover toll levies, while there are more cost-effective methods of recovery such as fuel levies that could alleviate the burden on consumers considerably.
Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, said his organisation also pointed out to Sanral that the proposed toll levies would contravene the Competition Act, 1998, in particular, section 8(a). “A dominant company may not abuse its dominant position to charge exorbitant rates,” said Kriel. Kriel urged Sanral to approach the Competition Commission to obtain finality on the matter. He also indicated that AfriForum intends to approach the Commission should the government decide to go ahead with the toll system.
Kriel said that AfriForum realises that expenditure has already been incurred in respect of the planned toll system, but the wasted expenditure will increase if the toll levies are implemented just because expenditure has already been incurred. “When a motorist takes the wrong exit and only realises his mistake after 20 km, it is still better for him to turn around as soon as possible and to retrace the wasted kilometres than to continue driving in the wrong direction and to cover more wasted kilometres. Likewise, it’s time for Sanral to ‘turn around’ and to scrap the planned toll system as soon as possible,” added Kriel.
