Upward trend in e-toll collections

Angrily tampering with figures to make a point is not contributing to a rational approach on the question of e-tolls. But this is what Wayne Duvenage of OUTA has done when the Minister of Transport's Parliamentary response indicated that there is an upward trend in e-toll income.

"It is general knowledge that when the Gauteng premier announced the Advisory Panel to re-look at the project, it caused uncertainty, with an immediate and steep drop in income from a high of R120 million in June 2014 to R45 million in January this year," says SANRAL's Chief Financial Officer, Inge Mulder.

With the announcement on 20 May 2015 that the user-pay principle will stay but the tariffs will be reduced, e-toll cash receipts began recovering and the trend is positive: from R61 million in April this year to R76 million in May, R78 million in June and R82 million in July - clearly an upward trend.

Any businessman knows it is practice to adjust forecasts monthly to take new developments into account - as is done by the Reserve Bank and many other prudent businesses.

"The revised forecasts notwithstanding, it is clear that month-on-month there is an upward trend in payment since the Deputy President's announcement in May. This is all we are saying - the facts don't lie," says Mulder.

SANRAL's spokesperson, Vusi Mona, says: "This means that more are paying and ignoring OUTA's exhortations. Most toll roads take between 16 and 22 years to break even. We're on track to beat that figure. And Mr Duvenage's fooling around with figures won't change that."

Mona said the agency is now used to Duvenage being dogmatic in his views: "To him, it would seem, a comparison can only be year-on-year and nothing else. But what about a month-on-month comparison? It is unfortunate that when a person becomes obsessed with proving his point of view, he develops blind spots."

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