The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) is looking at alternatives to e-tolls for billions of rand in needed road construction. Sanral expected legal processes against motorists who did not pay e-tolls bills to start soon, with compliance ranging from 30% to 40%, Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project manager Alex van Niekerk said on Thursday. Motorists owe Sanral more than R6bn in unpaid tolls. Sanral is gearing up to go to court, seeking default judgments against hundreds of thousands of motorists refusing to pay. But even if it succeeds, it said using tolling to fund future construction was inadequate. With the constraints on the fiscus, it could stifle the clearing of SA’s road infrastructure backlog, Van Niekerk said at a transport seminar at the University of Johannesburg. Even if SA were to find a political or legal solution to its ongoing battle over the introduction of tolling, it may not be the best way of financing road infrastructure, Prof David Hensher, director o...

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