Motorists who do not reside in Gauteng will not be affected by the imminent commencement of e-tolls - unless they visit the province and use its highways.
This is the reassurance the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) is giving out-of-towners as it continues its campaign to up e-toll compliance ahead of the system going live - which transport minister Dipuo Peters says will be before the end of the year.
"People who don't live in Gauteng don't have to pay for the upgrading of the highways in that province. However, if they travel on those roads, they will have to get a day-pass - which is easy to do," says Sanral.
Defending government's rationale behind the decision to go ahead with the e-toll system - which has seen widespread opposition - Sanral says the application of the user-pays principle is authorised by law and has been carefully considered.
Sanral spokesperson Vusi Mona says government considered a few methods for funding the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project - the R20 billion project that prompted the open road tolling of the province's highways. "One was the much touted fuel levy - a nationally raised tax." Mona says it would be unfair to expect road users outside of Gauteng to pay for heightened levels of road services in Gauteng while they do not enjoy the benefit of similar roads in their provinces, and so it was decided to make users of the inner Gauteng highways pay.
However, he notes, the user-pay principle kicks in for everyone who uses the tolled roads, even those who do not live in Gauteng, but have to travel through the province or who have business within it.
In this case, says Mona, road users can acquire a day pass. This cannot be done through retailers - motorists will have to either register online, via Sanral's Web site, go to one of the e-toll customer service centres (located in selected malls and along the side of the highways) or by calling the e-toll call centre.
For motorists who do not want to pay e-tolls or get a day pass, Mona says there are "plenty of alternative roads in Gauteng". The tolled roads are a 201km portion of the province's 3 000km network.
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