Column: e-toll fight ain't over yet

490 16/01/2012 The infamous coloured lights of a Sanral tolling gantry can be seen illuminating Gautengs roads during the night. Picture: Ihsaan Haffejee

490 16/01/2012 The infamous coloured lights of a Sanral tolling gantry can be seen illuminating Gautengs roads during the night. Picture: Ihsaan Haffejee

Published Mar 1, 2012

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Seldom has anything united South Africans of all colours and creeds as their opposition to e-tolling in Gauteng.

When the controversial e-tolls were first announced this publication predicted the government would employ a classic bargaining strategy in the pricing of the toll gates: start with a high figure, end with a low one (ie. the price they originally wanted), and hope that motorists end up feeling warm and fuzzy with their “victory”.

And that’s been exactly the course of events, except of course for the warm and fuzzy part at the end. After “slashing” e-tolls to 30c last week, it appears the government has dug in its heels, saying there will be no more discussion: the e-tolls are here to stay and the fees are now cast in stone.

Government has perhaps underestimated the anger of the public this time.

As things stand, with effect from April 30 motorcycles with e-tags will pay 20c a kilometre and those without, 38c. Light motor vehicles will pay 30 cents and 58 cents respectively, and non-articulated trucks 75 cents and R1.45. Articulated trucks with e-tags will pay R1.51 a kilometre and those without R2.90.

But the continued widespread opposition to the scheme makes it difficult to see how e-tolls can work, and government has perhaps underestimated the anger of the public this time. For a change, it seems the average law-abiding Joe Citizen isn’t simply putting up an initial protest and then meekly allowing his finances to be plundered. Especially as there’s been the double whammy of a 20c increase in the fuel levy, which many believe should be the mechanism used to pay for the upgraded Gauteng freeways rather than toll gates.

The angry reactions - from all sectors of society except for the bus and taxi operators who are exempt from paying e-tolls - indicate there’s still some haggling to be done on the issue. For starters, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) is staging a national strike on March 7 in protest against the toll roads.

The AA has called on motorists to keep up the pressure by not purchasing e-tags and thus create an administrative nightmare for Sanral which will have to collect toll fees by tracking down millions of motorists using just their number plates.

But it’s a stand-off and government is playing hardball.

Government spokesman Jimmy Manyi, who will clearly not win this year’s public relations award, said that Gauteng toll fees were “a fact of life and the law and no disobedience would be tolerated”.

Gauteng toll road users who don’t buy e-tags or pay toll fees could find themselves pursued through the courts for the money they owe. Draft legislation that will provide for civil - rather than criminal - action against toll “rebels” is expected to come before the cabinet on March 7, ironically on the same day as the proposed Numsa strike.

Government’s heavy-handed stance is strikingly arrogant given that there’s no decent public transport alternative offered to commuters (at least for those who don’t wish to risk their lives in minibus taxis driven by kamikaze pilots). - Star Motoring

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