Good morning. Back in 2012, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) was founded by Wayne Duvenage as a non-profit with the sole mandate of litigating the end of the controversial e-toll system in Gauteng.
In 2022, OUTA won the battle after the government decided to scrap the e-toll scheme. But for Duvenage the end of e-tolls will not be the end of OUTA, which has since expanded to challenge what it views as abuses of authority, corruption, and maladministration of taxpayers’ funds.
OUTA has taken on more than 230 projects since its inception and has its own in-house legal team to fight its battles against people who abuse their authority.
E-toll payments are to be refunded
The e-toll system was to be scrapped by December 31, 2022, but there has been a delay to its official end says Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi. The delay is due to the government’s decision to refund motorists who have been diligently paying their bills over the years.
While the e-toll scheme only has a compliance rate of 17% – the user base is not that high – but the amount of money due to be refunded to motorists is a massive R6.9 billion.
An alternative revenue model is needed to pay for SANRAL’s e-toll debt
Lesufi says the Gauteng government will have to come up with an alternative model to pay for Sanral’s e-toll debt and that the provincial government would be in consultation with Gauteng motorists over the best way forward.
The premier indicated that the provincial government did not want to make the same mistake it made with e-tolls by “causing a transaction without consulting people.” Lesufi indicated that different mechanisms would be explored including the possibility of a 3 cents per litre fuel tariff.
The Gauteng government agreed to take on 30% of Sanral’s debt when it decided to scrap the e-toll system.
What’s happening in the markets?
The rand weakened more than 2% against the dollar on Thursday – the most in a month – to see it at R17.25 at 6.34pm. At 6.11am, the local unit was trading stronger at R17.16/$.
The JSE closed 1.17% firmer but off the day’s high, boosted by industrial metals (3.99%), resources (3.15%), and precious metals (1.86%).
Asian markets are trading higher this morning, while in the US the S&P 500 closed 1.16% down. London’s FTSE 100 added 0.64% while Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 were both lower at 0.38% and 0.22% respectively.
Brent crude is currently trading at $78.88 a barrel.
Here’s what else you need to know:
ANC Conference
- Avoid chaos at start of ANC conference, Ramaphosa hints as second part gets under way – Business Day
- ANC resumes conference blasting ‘right wing’, promising advancement of transformation without any apology – Daily Maverick
- Has ‘The Cat’ run out of his many lives? – Times LIVE
SA Business
- AG flags ‘material uncertainty’ around Tshwane’s ability to continue as going concern – News24
- I spent R240,000 to fly Qatar Airways business class and saw why it’s called the ‘best in the world’ – Business Insider
- Big changes for state companies and nationalising the Reserve Bank – here are key proposals from the ANC – BusinessTech
Global Business
