Sanral wants a piece of roadside business

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25-03-2026
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Moneyweb
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Any business within 60m of a national road affected.

Owners and operators of roadside businesses are up in arms over proposed amendments to the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) policy on rest and service facilities (RSFs) along national roads.

They maintain that Sanral will be exceeding its mandate by trying to regulate the type of business that may operate, where, its location, and the profile of the people running the business – and this on private land.

They also want a say about environmental matters and land use, instead of sticking to road access, road quality and safety.

In addition, Sanral wants to participate in the business of providing charging stations for electric vehicles (EVs), which means it will act as both regulator and market participant, they say.

Sanral also wants to levy a percentage of the business’s turnover – which, according to Joubert Roux, chair of the Charge Group, could be as much as 10% – and limiting the rights it awards to 10 years, after which they would be subject to review.

EV charging rollout at risk

The Charge Group has started rolling out EV charging stations and plans to build a network with facilities every 150km on all national routes. It has officially objected to the amendments that were published in the Government Gazette on 23 February.

Roux says the Charge Group will also take the matter to the Competition Commission should the amendments be adopted.

He adds that the changes will have an impact on all business owners within 60m of a Sanral road or 500m from an intersection with a national road.

With this move, Sanral risks delaying the rollout of critical EV and energy infrastructure needed for South Africa’s energy transition, Roux says.

The group invests R16.5 million per charging station and provides for a further R6 million investment to increase capacity as the market grows.

Sanral’s statutory mandate …

If the amended policy is adopted, the Charge Group says this will introduce uncertainty for investors through discretionary decision-making without clearly defined criteria, the retrospective application to pending applications, and undefined or non-binding administrative timelines.

It says: “The draft policy introduces provisions that regulate facility location, spacing, transformation, environmental compliance and commercial participation, all of which fall outside Sanral’s statutory mandate and, in some cases, within the jurisdiction of other statutory frameworks.”

Bennie van Zyl, general manager of the agricultural union TLU, says the amendments will even have an impact on farm stalls.

He adds that Sanral wants to regulate what private landowners do on their land, interfering with their constitutional right to run a business on their own property.

The comment period closes on Wednesday (25 March).

Sanral lists the goals of the policy as transformation and equity, road safety, road user convenience and fatigue management, economic activity compatible with national roads, environmental responsibility, accessibility and inclusivity, spatial planning and cooperative governance.

Farmers, private landowners

Colin Steyn, a retired farmer who has leased 5 hectares of his farm next to a big interchange on the N1 outside Bloemfontein to the Charge Group for an EV charging station, however, says Sanral wants to have a piece of the pie from EV charging infrastructure.

He says the monthly rental income from the charging station will support his farming activities.

“I can plant more lucerne, and I am negotiating with them to get electricity from the charging station should Eskom fail to supply.”

France Mathibela, who owns a farm near Balmoral on the N4 freeway, says he has also objected to the amendments. He grows maize and soya beans and keeps cows, goats and sheep on his land.

He has also made a portion of his land available to the Charge Group for charging stations for passenger vehicles and trucks.

“How can Sanral decide what I can do on my land?” he asks.

“It is unfair towards me and the farming community if [Sanral] without jurisdiction can stop me from earning an income from my land.”

In its formal submission, the Charge Group says that under the amended policy: “Sanral may determine locations, commercial models and participation structures for RSFs and associated infrastructure.”

Sanral exceeding statutory mandate

It argues that Sanral is exceeding its statutory mandate under the Sanral Act by extending into land-use planning, environmental regulation and commercial market structuring.

If Sanral has its way, the amended policy will apply to all applications for approval that have been submitted but not yet approved.

Roux says that as things stand, applicants wait up to 1 000 days for Sanral’s response to applications “and the municipality does not do anything without Sanral’s input”.

He questions whether Sanral has deliberately delayed matters in anticipation of implementing the amendments.