Blade Nzimande warns e-toll uncertainty threatens Sanral’s survival
State-owned roads agency faces going-concern challenges due to huge debt
The SA National Roads Agency’s (Sanral’s) status as a going concern is in doubt due to the significant debt owed to investors, transport minister Blade Nzimande says. The agency, still struggling to generate cash from e-tolls, is one of the many state-owned entities that rely heavily on government bailouts. It has a government guarantee of close to R39bn. Sanral needs at least R4.3bn for the next year to March 2019, of which R3.8bn is required to refinance maturing debt. Earlier in November Nzimande said the government had not made a decision to scrap e-tolls in Gauteng. That seemed to contradict the view of Gauteng premier David Makhura that they needed to be scrapped, and that they had no future in the province as long as the ANC was in charge. This e-toll uncertainty is also hurting collection. In his medium-term budget policy statement in October, finance minister Tito Mboweni said the user-pays principle is fair if people want a properly functioning road transport infrastructur...
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