The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) says it is moving to help taxis register for e-tolling so they can take advantage of e-toll exemption, granted to them by Cabinet in 2011.
This comes two weeks after the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) reportedly vowed to boycott the system, because over 30 000 of Gauteng's taxis did not yet have the operating licences required for them to benefit from exemption. At the time, Santaco president Phillip Taaibosch blamed this on delays on the part of the Department of Transport (DOT).
Yesterday, Sanral said over 46 000 Gauteng taxis had registered for e-tolling, as of the end of March 2014. "This is due to the close cooperation between the DOT, Sanral, Gauteng Provincial Registrar and various taxi associations."
Sanral spokesperson Vusi Mona dismisses previous reports of the national taxi council boycotting e-tolls as rumours.
Sanral says it is in the process of administering another 1 300 applications for public transport registration.
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.
"Sanral urges taxi associations to encourage their members to register with the required documentation so that they can also receive exemptions and not pay any toll fees when using the Gauteng e-roads. Registrations remove any misunderstandings that may arise due to taxi owners receiving an account," says the roads agency.
Mona says Sanral will set aside any e-toll fees owed by qualifying public transport vehicles that have already received invoices.
While the decision to give taxis e-toll immunity has been met with criticism, Sanral argues that taxis transport the poor, who were already spending a huge chunk of their disposable income on transport.
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