The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) has lauded the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) on its call to boycott the e-toll system.
This comes following a report by The Times on Thursday, citing Santaco president Phillip Taaibosch as saying over half of Gauteng's 63 000 taxis did not have operating licences due to a delay at the Department of Transport.
The delay means the province's taxi owners cannot take up e-toll exemption, which was granted following a Cabinet decision in 2011. The SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) had argued that taxis transported the poor, who were already spending a huge chunk of their disposable income on transport.
Outa previously contested the fact that taxis - which it says do not constitute public transport - get "free passage".
Yesterday, the alliance said Santaco's call to boycott e-tolling was evidence of the group's frustration.
Outa chairman Wayne Duvenage says there is too much of a burden in the administration of e-tolls and Santaco's call for a boycott of the system last week was "the most logical approach" for it to take.
According to Sanral, the following categories of vehicles are exempt from the payment of e-tolls:
* SA Police Services vehicles;
* SSA National Defence Force vehicles;
* Metro Police vehicles for the Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni metropolitan areas;
* Emergency vehicles, including ambulance services and fire brigade vehicles; and
* Qualifying commuter public transport.
While qualifying commuter taxis (Class A2) and commuter busses (Class B) are completely exempt from the e-toll system, they have to be registered as public transport vehicles in order to take up the user-pay benefit.
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