Gauteng ANC rejects e-tolls - again

30/04/2012 A Sanral board showing different e-tag tariffs on Malibongwe road in Randburg Gauteng. (1478) Photo: Leon Nicholas

30/04/2012 A Sanral board showing different e-tag tariffs on Malibongwe road in Randburg Gauteng. (1478) Photo: Leon Nicholas

Published Feb 3, 2015

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Johannesburg - The rift between the ANC in Gauteng and the national leadership over the enforcement of controversial e-toll payments in the province looks set to widen.

This is after the ANC provincial lekgotla at the weekend resolved to push ahead with plans to propose the imposition of a fuel levy as among the viable means to pay for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project.

Highly placed sources in the provincial ANC leadership said on Monday the lekgotla was resolute in its stance that a fuel levy remained a practical way to fund the roads infrastructure, as opposed to e-tolls.

In addition, the lekgotla proposed the increase of motor vehicle licence fees "with a reasonable amount".

Companies found guilty of collusion in the construction of the 2010 soccer World Cup would also have to contribute towards the roads infrastructure "as a way of showing remorse".

The Star understands that the provincial leadership would push for these proposals during a meeting with interested parties on Friday. The resolutions effectively call for a review and rejection of the e-toll model.

The Gauteng government had been at loggerheads with the national government after Premier David Makhura called for the e-toll review process.

RUCTIONS WITHIN SENIOR ANC LEADERSHIP

The dispute has also pitted the provincial ANC against the national leadership and has in the process led to ructions within senior ANC leadership.

"We are not personalising or politicising anything. The reality is that there is a low level of compliance bordering on civil disobedience," a source in Gauteng said about the weekend resolutions.

"What we are saying is come with something reasonable, affordable and equitable. We must move away from the e-toll payment model because it's simply not affordable."

Gauteng ANC spokesman Dumisa Ntuli confirmed that the lekgotla had endorsed the advisory panel to review the project's socio-economic effects.

"The lekgotla reiterated our position that e-tolls in their current form are undesirable and unworkable," Ntuli said.

Another source said: "The national government's argument falls short. These are not Gauteng roads alone, they are national roads in Gauteng," he said.

"If we look at the fiscal contribution of Gauteng, it's huge, and the national government can't ignore that.

"We resolved to push for a fuel levy as part of the options."

HYBRID PAYMENT METHOD

Simultaneously, church leaders expressed happiness on Monday with the hybrid payment method proposed in the e-toll panel report.

Infrastructure dvelopment MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza held a session with about 400 members from Gauteng faith-based organisations to give feedback on the e-tolls.

Mayathula-Khoza said every MEC in the province had been given a sector of society they needed to keep communications open with, beginning with the -toll report.

Her task was to communicate with religious leaders.

The MEC said government report-back sessions would take place in the next two weeks. Towards the end of the month, Makhura would convene a meeting with everybody who had made submissions on the e-tolls, and the premier would make an e-toll announcement in a State of the Province address.

The MEC said the hybrid payment method looked at exemption for low-income vehicle owners linking the eNatis database to the Sars database, and exemption of high-occupancy vehicles such as taxis, scholar transport, registered vehicles of people with disabilities and vehicles of NGOs.

Other suggestions were a reduced cap on e-tolls, a ring-fenced national fuel levy, increasing the cost of advertising along the toll routes, increasing and ring-fencing a portion of motor-vehicle licence fees, increasing fees for tyres and recovery of costs from the construction industry.

The Star

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