Civil action group Outa says that numbers around the e-toll debt that the national and Gauteng provincial governments are planning to pay off aren’t quite adding up.
The group is calling for more transparency and explanations around the debt and how the publicised amounts were reached.
According to Outa, it has made a submission to parliament on the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS 2022) calling for an explanation of the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) debt reported in the budget and the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) portion of this.
It previously flagged the amounts quoted in the budget – over R43 billion in debt – as possibly being inflated.
“While we would have preferred that the government had not embarked on the costly exercise of implementing e-toll infrastructure in the first place – which would have negated the exorbitant amounts paid to the collection agency – we welcome the resolution of this matter and the acknowledgement that Gauteng commuter roads should be funded by the fiscus,” the group said.
“However, we would like improved transparency and clarity on these finances before the Sanral bailouts are finalised.”
Outa’s submission is to the Standing and Select Committees on Appropriations, on the 2022 Adjustments Appropriation Bill and the 2022 Special Appropriation Bill.
The Adjustments Appropriation Bill includes a transfer of R3.740 billion for Sanral for the GFIP, which was transferred to Sanral in July 2022 and is now being regularised, and a proposed transfer of R23.736 billion through the Special Appropriation Bill.
The national government has indicated it will pay off 70% of Sanral’s debt, and Gauteng will pay off 30%, plus pay for ongoing maintenance of the GFIP roads, effectively ending the e-tolls collection mechanism in Gauteng.
Gauteng has since said it is paying off 30% of the GFIP debt – not the full Sanral debt – and calculates its share as R12.9 billion.
Outa noted that the cost of the GFIP upgrade was R20 billion and that Sanral borrowed R20 billion to fund this. Since 2011/12, the national government has authorised government grants totalling R30.053 billion to Sanral, explicitly for the GFIP.
This includes the R3.740 billion transferred in July 2022, but excludes the proposed R23.736 billion transfer.
“However, the GFIP debt remains inexplicably high, as National Treasury said this was R43.031 billion in March 2022,” Outa said.
Following the announcement that the government would be paying off the e-toll debt, Outa raised questions about the R43 billion quoted, saying that its calculations show that this should not have exceeded R33 billion, at the very worst.
Outa head Wayne Duvenage said that while Sanral may have a total debt of R45.936 billion, it cannot be accepted that R43.031 billion of this is attributed to GFIP.
He noted that court papers put forward by Sanral in early 2012 – when the GFIP construction was virtually complete – showed that the GFIP capital cost amounted to R20.63 billion.
“We also know that Sanral’s liabilities in their 2012 financial statements reflect their capital market long-term bonds at R28.4 billion, and the total value of these bonds cannot all be attributed to GFIP,” Duvenage said.
According to Sanral’s financial statements from 2012 through to 2022, National Treasury has allocated R22.4 billion to Sanral for the financial management of the GFIP debt.
“This suggests that something is fundamentally wrong with Treasury’s statement that Sanral now has R43 billion debt relating to GFIP,” he said. “The GFIP debt is not R43 billion.”
Duvenage said that even if Sanral did not settle a single rand of the initial capital debt or the interest accrued, a bond of R20 billion over the past 12 years at 10% interest would not amount to more than R33 billion.
“What has Sanral done with the government grants received for GFIP over the last decade?”
Read: Government wants new ‘hybrid model’ to pay off e-tolls
Artmotion S.Africa
