The South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) has moved to dismiss reports that it plans to rollout e-tolls in Cape Town, labelling statements made by the City of Cape Town and the Right2Know (R2K) campaign as "grossly misleading".
In a statement issued today, Sanral spokesperson Vusi Mona notes that the agency's plans for Cape Town cannot be compared to what it implemented in Gauteng.
"Whereas in Gauteng we went out to borrow money in order to build the road, with Cape Town we will be appointing a concessionaire on a Build, Operate and Transfer basis. This means the concessionaire will design, finance, operate and maintain the road, returning it to the state in a specified condition at the concession period," he said.
"There will be conventional toll plazas along the N1 and N2. The electronic or automated method of payment, is a possible future consideration dependant on traffic volumes."
The agency described the proposed highway upgrades as a "major infrastructural investment", including a new 13km section of the N2, additional traffic lanes and integrating facilities with public transport projects.
"It is always Sanral's aim that the users of the new tolled facility, be it a brand new road or an upgraded existing road, will derive a real benefit when using that facility in comparison to what it was," added Mona.
He said the agency is allocated around R10 billion per year for its entire national road network, while the N1 and N2 project would require that amount. "We obviously can't allocate our entire budget to national roads that pass through one city. The fiscus is under pressure and we have to find alternative ways of financing road infrastructure".
The agency projects that 5 000 jobs will be created during the construction phase of the N1-N2 Winelands project, of which the majority will be for unskilled labour. "Seventy-two per cent of these jobs will go to workers at the lower end of the income spectrum. After construction about 600 direct jobs will be generated annually," said Mona.
War of words
Last week, R2K urged Sanral to "lift the veil of secrecy" on its Western Cape highway toll plans, after the agency put in a court application to have them kept out of the public domain.
According to R2K, Sanral refused to release a redacted version of the court papers after it noted the information was commercially confidential.
"The people of the Western Cape need to stay vigilant and ensure that e-tolling does not slip under our noses like it did in Gauteng. We want to know how much will be spent on e-tolling upgrades, how much it would affect ordinary people, and which companies are getting rich from e-tolling," said R2K in a statement.
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