Johannesburg - Outa applauded the Catholic Church's stance against the e-tolling of Gauteng highways on Tuesday.
“We are extremely pleased that an entity of such stature and magnitude as the Catholic Church has come out to defend the country's citizens against a questionable decision and action by the state,” Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) chairman Wayne Duvenage said in statement.
“This denouncement of e-tolling by the church was clearly conducted after significant research and an introspective assessment of the pros and cons of e-tolling.”
Duvenage said the church could have sat back and watched from the sidelines “as so many organisations do”, but had instead delved into the matter.
“It was ultimately the moral courage of various religious groups and other entities in the past that became the catalyst (for) apartheid's irrational 'house of cards' to come crashing down,” Duvenage said.
“It would appear there is a case of deja vu in this matter of irrationality, which has raised the brow of this massive religious body.”
The Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference's (SACBC) justice and peace department said on Monday that it supported Outa in its case against e-tolling, to be heard by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in September.
“We... call for the immediate suspension of the GFIP (Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project) e-tolling project and a full-access review of it by an appropriate forum (the Public Protector, the Auditor General or a judicial inquiry),” it said in a statement.
“We appeal for a re-think regarding alternative methods of funding it.”
The SACBC said it felt compelled to highlight the key moral issues underpinning e-tolling.
It said “it hardly seems appropriate” for the cost of implementing e-tolling to be nearly 74 percent of the total cost of the project.
The SACBC asked why increasing the fuel levy had not been considered, whether it was reasonable to privatise existing public roads, and what impact the project would have on the poor.
“Anything that raises the costs of doing business in the core of our South African economy will impact on the cost of living, and will disproportionately impact on the poor,” it said.
“Why are we investing in more expensive public infrastructure that fails to address the desperate need for an integrated public transport system that is affordable?”
The SACBC called on South Africans to “support and collaborate” in action against the project by the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu).
Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven said it “warmly welcomed” the church's stance.
“Cosatu particularly welcomes the church's concern over the effect of e-tolling on the poor,” he said.
“Thousands of workers have no alternative to driving their cars to and from work, because of the lack of a reliable public transport service and will therefore suffer a steep increase in their transport costs.”
He urged church members to join Cosatu's protests against e-tolling in Johannesburg on May 24 and in Ekurhuleni on May 31.
In April, the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) said it would begin e-tolling on Gauteng roads within two months.
In April last year, the High Court in Pretoria granted Outa an interdict approving a full judicial review before electronic tolling could be put into effect.
The interdict prevented Sanral from levying or collecting e-tolls pending the outcome of a review. Sanral and the National Treasury appealed the court order.
In September, the Constitutional Court set aside the interim order. In December, the High Court in Pretoria dismissed Outa's application to scrap e-tolling.
The court granted Outa leave on January 25 to take the matter to the SCA in Bloemfontein. - Sapa