Johannesburg - The ANC in Gauteng believes the rollout of BRT buses in three major cities and suburbs of the province would assist private vehicle owners to avoid e-tolled roads.
While trying to ease the outrage of motorists and residents about e-tolls, Gauteng ANC secretary David Makhura warned the SA National Roads Agency Limited to stop issuing threats “to the public who are willing to pay for e-tolls” but had not registered yet.
Makhura also appealed to Sanral to urgently intervene to sort out the billing problems experienced by many people. He did, however, not respond to a question on whether their call was prompted by the fact that e-tolls were likely to affect the voting pattern for the ANC in the province.
BRT ROLLOUT
Instead, Makhura emphasised that there was a need for BRT buses to be introduced in most of the suburbs to allow private vehicle owners to use them to come to work and do their business in various business districts in the province.
“The ANC lekgotla at the weekend called on our government to focus on fast-tracking the rollout of the BRT system and expansion of the Gautrain. The introduction of the new fleet of Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa trains will tremendously improve the movement of people and goods in our province and profoundly change the human settlement patterns and economic landscape of our province,” Makhura insisted.
BETTER ALTERNATIVES
He said the ANC was further calling upon the government to do major investments in the expansion of secondary roads in all municipalities to ease traffic.
“These interventions will soon provide many residents of Gauteng with better alternatives with regard to how they travel to work and do their business across the province. Currently, everybody is forced to use their own private vehicles on the e-tolled freeways; the future will be different.”
The Star