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E-tolls are here to stay

Bonnie Tubbs
By Bonnie Tubbs, ITWeb telecoms editor.
Johannesburg, 24 Feb 2015
Gauteng motorists will have to come to terms with the fact that government is not going to let e-tolling go.
Gauteng motorists will have to come to terms with the fact that government is not going to let e-tolling go.

The protracted e-toll saga may soon be over, for all intents and purposes, but not with the outcome many may have hoped for.

Gauteng premier David Makhura - the man who gave many motorists hope that government's e-toll system would be scrapped when he instigated a review last June - yesterday confirmed e-tolling, based on the user pay premise, was here to stay.

However, he said, it would involve a "new dispensation" that would see major financial relief for motorists, plus an easier way to pay e-toll fees. "The future can only be better than the past and the present for motorists who are law-abiding citizens."

This was announced during Makhura's State of the Province Address in Johannesburg yesterday, an occasion many expected would see the final word on the contentious system being uttered.

Instead - leaving the hot topic until last - the premier said the final decision on e-tolls would be taken when the intergovernmental team led by deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa was concluded.

He said the provincial government was working with Ramaphosa "to develop a better dispensation which will mitigate the negative impact of the e-tolls on the people of Gauteng, especially the middle and lower income groups". The final verdict is expected to come to light by the end of this month.

Matter of principle

The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) says - whatever the outcome - the underlying problem has still not been addressed.

Outa chairman Wayne Duvenage says Outa notes Makhura's "sincere desire" to see an amicable solution to the e-toll impasse, but wants the underlying problem to be recognised for what it is - "an unresolved historical conflict arising from the failure of the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) to observe basic values and principles governing public administration".

Duvenage says government continues to skirt the elephant in the room - that the system has failed as a user pays scheme. "How on earth they believe they can retain the system by making it easier or cheaper is beyond imagination.

"They also can't just explain it away as a mistake. There have been some grave injustices and shocking decisions by Sanral and the national government here. In this regard, they will have no option but to scrap the e-toll system before they are ever able to move forward with a solution, hand-in-hand with the people."

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