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Minister of Transport Sibusiso Ndebele (MP). Picture: Neil Baynes

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• Subsidy to reduce toll road costs

Continued pressure from Gauteng motorists has paid off: toll fees for the improved freeways have been slashed and the National Treasury will be paying off R5.75 billion of the debt incurred in building them.

Tolls will start being levied from April 30 and transport minister S’bu Ndebele warned that compliance would be enforced through the promulgation of new laws.

Finance minister Pravin Gordhan on Wednesday told journalists before the national budget being tabled before Parliament that this was not necessarily the model that would be followed with future infrastructure projects but said that the government had learnt lessons from the extremely negative public reaction.

Ndebele acknowledged that Gauteng motorists’ demands were “not unreasonable” but that it was not possible for national government to have picked up the entire R20bn tab for the upgrade of the road network.

Gordhan said that the national government’s direct contribution to the costs and the cutting of toll fees showed that it was “extremely sensitive” to the concerns that had arisen about how much motorists were going to have to pay to use the 185km network.

However, he warned that there would be no deviation from the user-pays principle, saying that nothing can be provided – except to the poorest – without some contribution from the user.

Vehicles with e-tags will pay 30c a kilometre, down from 66c previously, motorcycles will pay 20c a kilometre and non-articulated and articulated trucks would pay 75c and R1.51 a kilometre respectively.

An important concession for regular road users is that their monthly tolls will be capped at R550 a month and there will be a 15% discount in the rates after their toll fees reach R400.

Heavy vehicles will qualify for a 20 percent discount if they use the roads at certain times. This will also help avoid congestion.

Taxis and other public transport operators will be exempt from toll fees.

Gordhan also said that the Gauteng provincial government would upgrade the R55 and R101 provincial roads to provide alternatives to the tolled roads and that there would be a continued investment in other forms of public transport.

The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) will be left with a total debt of R59bn and, according to a statement released at the press conference, “to ensure sustainability, the minister of transport will table the necessary legislation to provide Sanral with enforcement powers for tolling”.