E-tolling or E Thief?

[Citizen X]

My impassioned Plea to the following Soth African Provinces: Eastern Cape, Free State, Kwazulu Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, Northern Cape and Western Cape
1. Etolling was never about improving or maintaining our roads, it will never be about improving or maintaining our South African roads. Its sole purpose is to unjustifiably enrich certain individuals and certain companies. It is a lucrative business opportunity. South Africans are being lied to!
2. The intention is to roll out etolling to all other provinces. The argument of why should other provinces pay for Gauteng roads has an immediate intention(Dolus), namely, don’t get other provinces voices heard on this matter, deal swiftly with any Gauteng uprising and when etolling is rolled out to other provinces then deal with them accordingly; Start the objection to etolling process now already in your Provinces, i.e. petitions etc
3. With the benefit of objective hindsight, I now realize that the installation of these etolling gantries caused huge traffic problems of being unnecessarily delayed in traffic because these gantries needed to be installed to enrich certain individuals and companies, there were many accidents caused as a direct result of such road works, the vast majority of us Gautengers innocently believed that the Government was improving the roads for the 2010 world cup and improving the roads for us. I think we overlooked the frustration and inconvenience such road works caused us. The only major road works were the installation of these gantries;
4. No one believes or accepts the argument that for every rand you personally spend on etolling you will either make R8.84 or save R8.84 and even have extra time for the gym and to spend with your family. Without paying etolls as at today’s date, you not saving anything, there is no improvement in traffic(traffic is as worse as it possibly could be and will only get worse), you don’t have extra time to spend with your family or to go to the gym, new road users are entering the traffic on a daily basis so when we reach a situation of paying how will that improve your situation, you will only make you poorer by that amount you have to pay!
5. If the Arab uprising or Spring has taught us anything then it’s simply this: The Will of the people eventually prevails!
WE WANT YOU TO HAVE BETTER ROADS, WE CARE ABOUT YOU

[Dave A]

I'm not sure there's much the provinces can do about it - it's national roads that are being tolled and it falls within the ambit of national government.

Interesting that Chancellor House has a finger in the pie, albeit quite far removed from source by the looks of things. Just one more oddity that on its own one probably couldn't read too much into it. But when you add it to all the other little oddities around the financing and ownership, it really does add up to something of a fishy brew.

[Citizen X]

Yes, some murky waters there. The one positive is that it united South Africans. a common cause. I think the Arab saying for this is ," The enemy of my enemy is my friend!"

[Citizen X]

Re: Your resignation: Ref: Nazir Alli


Dear Mr Alli,



1. I refer to the above matter and further to your resignation which came before me in my official capacity of South African Citizen(ex officio);

2. I hereby confirm that I accept your resignation, and furthermore that you may stay in your position until 3 June 2012
I would like to take this opportunity to wish you everything of the best!


Best regards,

South African Citizen


"The immediate focus and priority of the board is to ensure that Sanral continues to perform its essential role in operating and maintaining more than 16000km of national roads across South Africa," Mr Mnyaka said.

Mr Mnyaka, in my official capacity as a South African citizen I hereby inform you that I’m pleased that you are going to perform your essential role in operating and maintaining more than 16000km of national roads across South Africa.”
Please continue to do so as you have done so all these years without etolling.
Don’t worry about who should pay that 32 billion, just like the pebble nuclear project failed so too should etolling. Just invite that Austrian company for supper, I’m sure that they will understand.
Best regards,
South African Citizen

[Nickolai Naydenov]

Here's the latest article from Mail & Guardian:

SANRAL only able to limp on for six months
08 MAY 2012 16:30 - LYNLEY DONNELLY

As CEO Nazir Alli resigns, treasury told parliamentarians that Sanral would only be able to survive another six months through "major sacrifices".

As the embattled South African National Roads Agency lost its CEO, Nazir Alli, the national treasury told parliamentarians on Tuesday that Sanral would only be able to survive for another six months and only through “major sacrifices”.

For the next six months Sanral could exist by “scraping” together resources intended for other purposes and using them to make sure that it meets its immediate finanicial obligations — “but only through major sacrifrices and for a very short period”, said transport department director general Lungisa Fuzile.

He was speaking at a briefing on the treasury’s strategic plan to the portfolio committee on finance.

The government would not allow Sanral to collapse, nor was it able to walk away from Sanral’s liabilities as the legislation establishing agency included a strong implicit guarantee of its debts, he said.*This was reinforced by government’s explicit commitments to back Sanral’s debt, said Fuzile.

The decision by Moody’s to downgrade Sanral’s debt by two notches, which the state had warned of in court proceedings last week, was “very serious”, he said.*Not only did it substantially raise Sanral’s cost of borrowings, but it also brought Sanral bonds very close to a sub-investment grade rating.

If an financial instrument, such as a bond, is rated as sub-investment grade they are deemed much more risky.

This meant , said Fuzile, that many of Sanral’s investors are now taken to the legal limits of the types of investments they are able to hold on behalf of their clients.

“This is a crisis environment,” said deputy finance minister Nhlanhla Nene after the briefing.

The Cabinet committee was seeking to ensure that Sanral was sustainable beyond the next six months and is treating this as an urgent matter, he said.

According to treasury, the government has guaranteed 56% of Sanral’s debt, approximately R21.4-billion of a total debt of R37.9-billion.

The department acknowledged concerns around the impact of Sanral’s debt downgrade on other state-owned entities but is confident the other SOE’s, on a stand-alone basis, had solid financial metrics.

However, opposition MPs were very critical of treasury’s reluctance to deal with the Sanral issue in greater detail.

The department had warned early in the week that it wanted to focus on issues relevant to its strategic plan, rather than deal with a matter that was part of the ongoing court proceedings and being addressed by Cabinet.

The hearing was a missed opportunity to deal with the worries regarding the state of the SOE debt market, in the wake of Sanral crisis, said Congress of the People MP Nick Koornhof.

Democratic Alliance MP Tim Harris called on Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to explain the fiscal consequences on the country with the delay of the e-toll project, and to outline alternative options that will minimise the cost to the taxpayers.

[Nickolai Naydenov]

The sad part is that tolling or no tolling we'll still pay the costs because where does government take money from? Us the tax payers of course. So SANRAL originaly estimated the costs to be 22 billion which ended up being 40 billion, I don't know about you but miscalculations of that magnitude to me mean how much money have been taken by government employees by means of corruption. Mr. Ali resigns because now the s*it hit the fan so that's a easy way out because he knows what's going to happen next. Then I wonder what happened to the 15.7 billion that GEPF spent on sanral bonds. I also wonder how government tells us how to invest our money for retirement but they do as they please with people's money, corruption and nonsense, this is our government unfortunately.

[Justloadit]

Yes we have to pay for the upgrade, but the path that we are now going to follow, does not include all the unnecessary bribery and corruption that was covering the collection of the toll monies.

No one said that we must not pay for it, the methodology being used to collect the funds on the behalf of the debt was dubious, and there was going to be a lot of money disappearing into oblivion, there just too many open hands along the path of collection to final payment.

The finance minister had pledged over R5 billion in the budget this year to pay for the eToll account, so where is the money that was promised. Simply transfer the money to cover the debt and we can get on with our lives.

If the government does this for the next 5 years, then the infrastructure upgrade is fully paid.

The problem here is that too many people want to be remunerated for being in the Political Position that they are in, they are not there to ensure that the public funds are to be used wisely. The notion that public money belongs to them and they shall do as they please is what is in question.

We need to get rid of all these thief's, as they are the ones creating the bad investments.

[Citizen X]

Good morning Nickolai and Jusloadit, you guys both raise very valid perspectives! Nickolai is right when he says we still going to pay for it anyway. I would prefer a fuel levy though. Let's assume that they increase petrol by 10 cents per liter. That 1 liter of petrol still takes the average car 10 kilometers. So it's 1 cent per kilometer which is very reasonable considerating what Sanral wanted to charge per kilometer. And, yes, they will eventually get all their money this way and still make a profit. They just should not be greedy and expect this overnight.
Justloadit, is right when he avers that part of that money will go to bribery and corruption and hence the urgency surrounding the paying of that 32 billion!
My concern is that there are attempts to lead the South public to believe that this is in our best interest. Look at the following proposition:

"The immediate focus and priority of the board is to ensure that Sanral continues to perform its essential role in operating and maintaining more than 16000km of national roads across South Africa," Mr Mnyaka said.
What any reasonably minded person can deduce from this, is that My Mnyaka is trying to say that Sanral will continue to do what they have always done. In my opinion he is trying to use innuendo very ineffectively by the way to suggest that this part of this ‘continuance’ of what Sanral always done has been done is to introduce etolling! We’ve had had etolling before! Why do we really need it now? Then this concept of someone must pay that 32 billion. Given our history of failed projects why and how is it a problem for us to actually pay anyone? The pebble nuclear financial disaster is just one example. We moved on with no problem. Etolling should also fail just like the pebble nuclear project. The vast majority of South Africans won’t mind.
Salahadin Yacoubi (CEO ECT) on these ANC linked beneficiaries, “ How I source things is my decision. Firstly, I didn’t know about any links with the ANC and secondly I’m not interested. If you have problems because the owners are linked to this or that, I’m sorry. I’m a private company I can do that.”
I’m beginning to understand now why it’s so urgent to pay that 32 Billion!
Look at this man’s attitude! Do we as South Africans really need to put up with his indifference?
They can just invite him and his staff for supper and call it a day.
SANRAL
“E THIEF”
Salahadin Yacoubi on these companies, “ How I source things is my decision. Firstly, I didn’t know about any links with the ANC and secondly I’m not interested. If you have problems because the owners are linked to this or that, I’m sorry. I’m a private company I can do that.”
I’m beginning to understand now why it’s so urgent to pay that 32 Billion!

[Dave A]

I'd actually like to credit Nazir Alli for a couple of things:

1. He has done a fair job at SANRAL for a number of years preceding the eTolling debacle.
2. As the top man in an organisation that has blundered on his watch, he has taken responsibility and done the honourable thing - tendered his resignation.

Frankly, I wish there were more like him in government and quasi-government agencies.
(I'm not wishing that they fail, but that when their organisation does fail, that they duly resign as the accountable leader).

[AndyD]

I also don't have a problem with Nazir Alli, from what little I've read he appeared to have many achievements at Sanral. It wasn't the first time he's resigned, it was just the first time his resignation was accepted. He also wasn't directly or solely responsible for the e-toll debacle. In my opinion if he was pushed to resign as a scapegoat offering they'll have to do a damn sight better than that.

[Citizen X]

We will continue in our role in operating and maintaining national roads across South

[Martinco]

Now just to confuse the issue even further.

One guy is going to pay for three trips !

I guess these were taken during the testing phase but never-the-less.

[Justloadit]

Ha, is it not the previous Tshwane metro police chief?


Have you noted the date and times?

[Citizen X]

"BALTY GP."
"Dis lekker in Siuid Afrika, cause Toronto is too blady far!"

[Martinco]

Have you noted the date and times?

These were the times I uploaded the pics to the forum.
The time when the pics were taken is actually printed right on top in very small print !