Campaigners against tolling on the KwaZulu-Natal side of the N2 Wild Coast highway project say they have been vindicated after the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) and the Treasury confirmed the scrapping of a toll gate in the province.
Sanral and the Treasury say the N2 Wild Coast Toll highway project — which will run from Durban to East London covering 560km — will be funded by the national budget instead of by tolls.
Ted Holden, of the South Coast Business Coalition, said the group had received written confirmation from new Sanral head Skhumbuzo Macozoma, that there would be no tolling on the KwaZulu-Natal side of the freeway.
"Macozoma assured us in a letter that there would be no more toll plaza on our side (KwaZulu-Natal) of the freeway. This is welcome news because we had spent many years litigating and protesting against south Durban commuters paying for an upgrade that will benefit the people of Eastern Cape," he said.
Transport Minister Dipuo Peters told a gathering in the Free State at the weekend that construction of the N2 Wild Coast project would commence in March.
Peters’s statement came soon after Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan tabled his medium-term budget policy statement, in which he said the Wild Coast highway project, expected to cost about R8bn, and the Moloto Road Project, a R3.7bn 139km road project linking Limpopo and Gauteng, would all be funded from the national budget.
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