The issue of e-tolls on Gauteng’s highways, which cost the ANC votes during the municipal elections in 2016, has come under the spotlight again, with the ANC-run provincial government reiterating its call for the controversial system to be scrapped.
If the cabinet accedes to the demand from the provincial government, unions and NGOs to scrap e-tolls, it could boost the ANC’s fortunes at the municipal elections on November 1.
The national transport department, which missed a March deadline to resolve the e-tolls issue, said it was waiting for cabinet to make a final decision. This was as the National Treasury was seen to be taking a tough stance, with former finance minister Tito Mboweni having repeatedly emphasised the user-pays principle.
But Gauteng public transport & roads infrastructure MEC Jacob Mamabolo last week reaffirmed that “our position is still the same: the e-tolls must be scrapped, and must be scrapped now”.
He was addressing Cosatu members who had marched to premier David Makhura’s office to deliver a list of demands as part of their protest against job losses, retrenchments and corruption on Thursday.
“We want to assure you that the provincial government, the residents of Gauteng, NGOs, all key stakeholders reaffirm the position for the scrapping of e-tolls,” he said.
Mamabolo said e-tolls were a “burden to everyone”, including the government, because they “are not even generating the revenue that government requires. They are underperforming on their own target of generating revenue.”
Mamabolo said: “We have made a comprehensive submission to national government in which we have said there are better ways and much more efficient ways of raising revenue to maintain, to expand, to grow the road network.” He emphasised that the provincial government had tabled a “practical, workable and simple” alternative to e-tolls that could generate a lot of revenue for the state.
He said Gauteng, SA’s economic hub, was the most tolled province. “We have got many toll gates, on top of that we have got gantries. They are making the cost of living very high for households, communities, for SMEs, for corporations.”
Wayne Duvenage, CEO of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), told Business Day that taking a decision on e-tolls was easy, “yet they continue to procrastinate on it”.
“I put it down to incompetence. We have a minister who has been telling us for a number of years that a decision is imminent,” he said.
“We have a government that seems to be unable to tackle difficult decisions. It’s strange, quite frankly. There are alternatives but they are indecisive and that’s the problem. I think they lack the capability to make a simple decision.”
Mbalula’s acting spokesperson, Lawrence Venkile, did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The ANC has previously admitted that the contentious Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project contributed to its electoral misfortunes in Gauteng, with the governing party losing control of Johannesburg and Tshwane to a DA-led coalition during the watershed local government elections in 2016.
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