{"id":7067,"date":"2012-03-01T13:16:29","date_gmt":"2012-03-01T13:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=7067"},"modified":"2012-03-01T15:12:49","modified_gmt":"2012-03-01T15:12:49","slug":"sanral-takes-moodys-hit-over-e-tolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/7067\/sanral-takes-moodys-hit-over-e-tolls\/","title":{"rendered":"SANRAL takes Moody&#8217;s hit over e-tolls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The South African National Roads Agency Soc Limited (<a title=\"Company Information\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/vb\/showthread.php\/372008-SANRAL\">SANRAL<\/a>) has advised that Moody&#8217;s Investors Service has downgraded its long-term ratings due primarily to the e-tolling fiasco.<\/p>\n<p>Moody&#8217;s stated that the rating action follows the recent decision of the South African government to further reduce the toll fees on SANRAL&#8217;s biggest toll road project, the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP).<\/p>\n<p>The negative rating outlook reflected Moody&#8217;s concerns regarding South Africa&#8217;s deteriorating operating environment, as reflected by the negative outlook on South Africa&#8217;s A3 government bond ratings; and the concerns regarding SANRAL&#8217;s operational risks and business model, the ratings agency said.<\/p>\n<p>SANRAL has been downgraded to Baa1 (global scale, local and foreign currency) and to Aa3.za (South African national scale rating), from A3 and Aa2.za, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>The outlook on the ratings is negative, Moody\u2019s said.<\/p>\n<p>Cosatu secretary general, Zwelinzima Vavi, said on Thursday (March 1, 2012) that Gauteng highways are national assets and not commodities for profit, Sapa reported.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The federation will continue to campaign for an efficient, safe, and affordable system of public transport,&#8221; Vavi added.<\/p>\n<p>Tolling was also expected on 185km of the N1, N3, N12 and R21 around Johannesburg and Tshwane.<\/p>\n<p>With effect from April 30, motorcycles with e-tags will pay 20 cents a kilometre and those without, 38 cents.<\/p>\n<p>Light motor vehicles will pay 30 cents and 58 cents with and without tags, respectively, and non-articulated trucks 75 cents and R1.45.<\/p>\n<p>Articulated trucks with e-tags will pay R1.51 a kilometre and those without, R2.90.<br \/>\nUnder the new fee system, the cost for motorcycles and light vehicles will be capped at R550 a month, Sapa wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Vavi said Congress of SA Trade Union (Cosatu) affiliates and provincial structures reported overwhelming support for a March 7 strike against e-tolling &#8211; and for banning labour brokers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s all-systems go for the biggest mass protest in years,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Government spokesman, Jimmy Manyi, however, weighed-in on the reality of the e-tolling situation, saying that e-tolling is not going to go away.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is not just a bad dream; it&#8217;s a reality, it&#8217;s going to happen,&#8221; he said, &#8220;No one should have any illusion whatsoever that this thing is going to go away. It&#8217;s a fact of life and it&#8217;s going to happen.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South African National Roads Agency Soc Limited (SANRAL) has advised that Moody&#8217;s Investors Service has downgraded its long-term ratings due primarily to its e-tolling fiasco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[1650,1804,1805,26,1806,429],"class_list":["post-7067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-e-tolling","tag-e-tolls","tag-gauteng-freeway-improvement-project","tag-headline","tag-moodys-investors-service","tag-sanral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7067"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7069,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7067\/revisions\/7069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}