Pretoria - ANC members in Gauteng can't afford e-tolls. So they have instructed party chairman Paul Mashatile and Premier David Makhura to do something about it.
This was confirmed by the ANC provincial leadership following their three-day provincial general council in Pretoria, which ended on Sunday.
Mashatile said the new e-toll dispensation was not making much difference to improving people's lives and that whatever had been done so far had not satisfied them. He said the provincial leadership would continue to have talks with the national government.
“At our last conference we said the e-tolls in their current form were not acceptable because people cannot afford them. At the PGC our members reiterated that position. They still stand on that position. We must go back and tell national government exactly that” Mashatile said.
In October 2014, ANC members had mixed feelings about e-tolls, with some sections within the party wanting their total scrapping while others wanted an affordable “user pays” system. Due to these differences of opinion, Makhura set up an advisory panel to assess the impact of e-tolls on Gauteng residents.
Also read: E-toll hike to inflict 'pain' on Gauteng
During the panel hearings, the ANC delegation, led by Mashatile, told panel chairman Muxe Nkondo that the party’s concern was that e-tolling gantries were placed in areas leading to the economic hub of the province and therefore people from areas such as Soweto had to incur an extra financial burden.
According to the ANC, they were of the view that tolls should be in the outlying areas of Gauteng and other entry points that were not tolled.
At the time, the ANC also suggested a possible increase in the fuel levy as an alternative to e-tolling.
But due to the ANC and other political parties’ submissions, the panel did not make pronouncements on the location of e-tolls. The panel did reject the fuel levy proposals because it would affect all areas where there were no e-tolls.
Following the panel’s recommendations, a new dispensation was introduced offering motorists discounts on their unpaid bills and amnesty on defaulters. On Sunday, however, Makhura said ANC members had again told leaders the e-tolling system in its current form was unacceptable as people could not afford it.
The premier said the PGC had reaffirmed the decision of conference that e-tolls were still unaffordable and the leadership was mandated to go back to national government.
The Star