So government has amended Covid-19 regulations to allow 2,000 vaccinated spectators at stadiums, and it started with the Bafana Bafana vs Ethiopia match on Tuesday.
Great news; vaccinated people must enjoy such privileges. I hear the tickets were snapped up almost immediately they went on sale. Who can blame them? People are hungry for live action.
The last time I was at a stadium was at a packed Orlando on a beautiful night late in 2019, as Pirates eased past Sundowns, a team that is difficult to play and win against. The atmosphere was electric; there was hardly a spare seat in the grandstand. Fans make live sporting events.
Who could forget those packed stadiums at Euro 2020; the camaraderie, the singing, the passion? That is what gets players fired up, not empty venues with artificial crowd sounds inserted by broadcasters.
But getting to football stadiums when there are no crowd restrictions is difficult. Traffic control in Joburg and Tshwane is often chaotic. Getting to a sold-out Chiefs vs Pirates at FNB Stadium can be a painful exercise — you must leave at least two hours in advance if you want to be seated by kickoff. Cape Town gets it right. You are ushered to dedicated parking spots away from the ground, from there you walk to Greenpoint or Newlands.
Because of our poor public transport system, a trip from my house to FNB is best undertaken in a private vehicle. Half of the 23km journey takes you along the N1 South highway, past three e-toll gantries, before off-ramping on Nasrec Road.
I always marvel at the e-toll technology, especially at night when the white overhead structures illuminate the highway with blue neon lights. What a wondrous spectacle.
The state was told that forcing e-tolls on Gauteng motorists would lead to civil disobedience. Motorists and businesses, burdened by high fuel prices and other rising costs, were never going to accept an extra financial burden imposed by these tolls
It’s a pity the entire Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) was not well thought out. I remember it was just before the 2010 Fifa World Cup that roads agency Sanral went on a borrowing drive to raise R20bn to R30bn to widen Gauteng’s notoriously gridlocked highways to improve traffic flow. Even then, government was warned a user-pay principle on highways that were free to use was a terrible idea. But as with other ill-conceived projects, it will push ahead until things blow up in its face.
The state was told that forcing e-tolls on Gauteng motorists would lead to civil disobedience. Motorists and businesses, burdened by high fuel prices and other rising costs, were never going to accept an extra financial burden imposed by these tolls.
Now, more than a decade later, Sanral is almost on its knees. Giving an opinion in its latest annual report, auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke cautioned that refusal by Gauteng drivers to pay e-tolls is placing the roads agency in a perilous financial position. It has had to shelve several road-improvement projects and cut maintenance spending as a result of poor collection of e-tolls.
According to Business Day, Maluleke has flagged an accumulated loss of R14.4bn and expected credit losses of close to R10bn.
“Sanral’s funding strategy for the next 12 months relating to toll operations is dependent on positive developments to resolve the e-toll impasse by cabinet. These events or conditions, along with other matters, indicate that a material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on Sanral’s ability to continue as a going concern,” the auditor-general said in the report.
Sanral has had to suspend collection of e-toll debt as a result of low levels of compliance.
E-tolls have become a political hot potato. The ANC in Gauteng almost lost this province in 2019 and acknowledges that part of the reason for its declining electoral performance was general unhappiness with e-tolls. National Treasury won’t budge. It still insists on and budgets for Sanral based on the “user-pay principle” in respect of GFIP debt. Sometimes you have to ask yourself if the mandarins at Treasury live on the same planet as all of us. Motorists have overwhelmingly rejected e-tolls; why continue flogging a dead horse? Sure, this is a policy issue and in the end cabinet has to take the final decision on the scrapping of e-tolls. But the decision could be expedited if Treasury recommended this. It must take over the GFIP debt as it’s already a contingent liability, renegotiate with creditors and settle it over a period of time. Sanral must focus on its core mandate of managing and improving the national road network instead of debt collection.
If I were an adviser, I’d suggest we keep the beautiful gantries and use their cameras for accident and traffic violation observation. Motorists have voted with their wallets, it’s time for government to play ball.
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