It is clear that the ANC has no clue about what it is doing when it comes to finding a resolution to e-Tolls.
The Minister of Transport, Fikile Mbalula was expected to make an announcement on the future of e-Tolls today, but has yet again postponed this in order to take into consideration the impact of various options put forward by the task team and to further consult and engage with stakeholders.
The DA has always been against the implementation of e-tolls as it is an unfair tax burden on the already overburdened residents of this province.
This latest decision indicates that the ANC is playing for time as it tries to resolve the internal disagreement over e-Tolls.
This clearly shows that Premier David Makhura is not a man of his word as he has failed to convince his counterpart, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni that e-Tolls have no future in Gauteng and must be scrapped immediately.
Why should residents have to suffer because of an ongoing power struggle between Premier Makhura, Minister Mboweni and Minister Mbalula?
It is clear the e-tolls are not working as the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) only managed to collect R687.7 million for e-Tolls for the 2018/2019 financial year compared to the previous year when they were able to collect R1.87 billion.
Furthermore, because no concrete solution was found to e-Tolls means that Sanral will see a further decrease in e-toll collection.
If a small percentage of the fuel levy or even the pipeline supply levy was put towards the project from the start, it could already have been paid off. But instead the fuel levy is being used to bail out mismanaged State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).
While the Finance Minister said yesterday during his Medium-Term Budget Speech that like going to Pick n Pay and paying for bread, road-users should pay for e-tolls, he forgets that the province’s residents had no choice with regards to the e-Toll system.
We are now hamstrung in paying for something that we never wanted in the first place.
If e-Tolls are not scrapped before the year ends, the e-Toll collection contract which is due to end on 2 December 2019, could be renewed, which we cannot afford.
The DA will continue to put pressure on the Gauteng Provincial Government to declare an intergovernmental dispute and to scrap e-Tolls. We will continue our petition to scrap e-tolls.
Sign our petition here: https://petitions.da.org.za/p/scrap-etolls