Govt to plug e-tolling loopholes

22/02/12 One of the Sanral tollgates on the N1 south to Johannesburg. (sanral), (e-tag), (e-toll) and (gantry) Picture: Thobile Mathonsi

22/02/12 One of the Sanral tollgates on the N1 south to Johannesburg. (sanral), (e-tag), (e-toll) and (gantry) Picture: Thobile Mathonsi

Published Feb 27, 2012

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The government plans to plug loopholes in the current legislation that allow Gauteng toll road users without e-tags to avoid paying the toll fees.

Following the announcement that Gauteng's controversial e-tolls would begin at the end of April, transport director-general George Mahlalela said the government would defend itself as motoring lobbies threatened legal action. He said the government was confident that all the legislative amendments would be in place by April 30.

“What we are improving is to remove complex legal issues that if you are found to transgress the laws by not paying tolls you have to be taken to court criminally,” he said.

“The legislative framework improvements will say this becomes an administrative civil process instead of a criminal one.”

Mahlalela added that the minister of transport had “suspended this thing (tolling) twice now because people were saying they were not consulted”.

“If we were dictators we would have implemented the tolling in February last year already,” he said.

“We did everything we could to reduce the impact on road users. I don't think we could have had consensus across the board whether it's R50 or R300 that had to be paid; the reality is it is still somebody's disposable income.”

Cabinet spokesman Jimmy Manyi said: “Cabinet is firm - there will be e-tolling. The law will be passed to have a remedy against transgressors.”

Asked what the government had done to provide an alternative, Mahlalela said there had been “short-term interventions such as making sure that trains were clean, efficient and on time”.

“We also looked at integration of taxis and buses.”

But independent transport consultant Paul Browning questioned this.

“This response does not appear to show that the government is genuinely committed to providing alternatives for Gauteng road users,” he said.

“I fully understand the impracticability of making large scale improvements in public transport, but many of us would like to see evidence of a greater degree of urgency on the part of the government.”

Mahlalela said improved roads had huge benefits for Gauteng motorists because “instead of the two-hour travel it would take them 30 minutes”. He added that other positives of improved roads were less fuel usage and less congestion.

“What we are saying to the people of Gauteng is that what you lose on the tariffs you gain on the other side. In real terms you are not losing much.

“We are concerned about the kind of scary figures that have been thrown around to raise alarm, but while these are genuine concerns that South Africans have, we believe the reality once the tolls begin will be different.”

He said the government had no choice but to resort to the user-pay principle to improve the road infrastructure, because “waiting for budget allocation could take years which by then the roads would have deteriorated”. - Saturday Star

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