‘Don’t pop the champagne just yet,’ warns Outa over e-tolls debt halt
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has cautiously welcomed the decision by national roads agency Sanral to suspend the process of pursuing e-toll debt.
“We need to be cautiously optimistic,” said Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage on Wednesday.
At the same time Duvenage warned Gauteng motorists not to start celebrating just yet as there is still some uncertainty over the temporary halt to recover the money owned to Sanral.
“We need clarity from government are they going to halt this process permanently, are they going to stop chasing debt permanently, are they going to reverse that debt and are they going to declare these roads as non-toll roads?”
Several political parties have conveyed their dismay at the pay-user system, calling for its permanent scrapping.
This while the roads agency’s Vusi Mona says this doesn’t mean that motorists are off the hook.
He says a permanent decision will be taken by the board once President Cyril Ramaphosa pronounces on the future of the e-tolls.
“It’s not over yet. It’s a good sign and it’s something we can be happy about but let’s not take out the champagne yet,” said Duvenage.
Although Mona denies political influence from the ANC, Duvenage believes government had intervened as the country is gearing up for general elections in May.
“Maybe they wouldn’t have made the decision. E-tolls have become a nightmare for government. Government was certainly feeling the heat and we think that government had sent a message to SANRAL to put a stop to this for a while.”