The decision to delay the signing of the Transport & Related Matters Amendment Bill, under the guise that it may be incorrectly tagged in the parliamentary process, is regarded by Outa as a tactic to ignore the issue by keeping it out of electoral debate till after the next elections.
The question of whether it should be tagged as a Section 76 or 75 bill was raised by the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) in May this year, during the parliamentary process where every political party, barring the ANC, voted against the bill.
Sanral now claims this bill is required for e-tolls to proceed, however this regulatory requirement was not an issue in August 2012 when Sanral’s lawyers argued in the Constitutional Court that they would start tolling within two weeks of the interdict being set aside (which happened a month later).
The reality is that e-tolls, a serious election issue, is too hot a potato for the ruling party to handle right now. Sanral funds are critically low and they are ready to toll.
In September 2012, one of the reasons ConCourt set the Outa interdict aside was that, allegedly, court decisions must be careful not to usurp the executive powers of an elected government. “It’s ironical that now, when we have a policy which clearly portrays the ruling party’s position on social infrastructure development, they seek ways to remove the issue from the electorate debate”, said Outa’s Wayne Duvenage.
“Why don’t the authorities place the e-toll matter squarely into the electioneering fray, if indeed this is the stuff that executive powers ought to be rated and voted on?”
