Civil activism is an increasingly important tool in our democracy. But let’s choose our causes more honestly, says Max du Preez.
If I were living in Gauteng, I would have bought my e-tag and paid for my usage of the province’s toll roads.
I would, however, not have done so happily, because every time I pay I would be reminded that more cents in my rand go to a private company than to the SA National Roads Agency responsible for the roads.
The government’s decision to start the e-toll system next week tipped the balance in my decision making.
It took guts to order the hugely unpopular system to start just a few months before next year’s highly contested general elections.
Our government is not known for doing anything that could be unpopular in its primary constituency during election time.
I spent last week driving in and around Joburg and Pretoria.
My hired car had an e-tag and beeped every time I drove under one of the many gantries. Arguments on where the revenue goes aside, it is quite a marvellous system.
In fact, I was impressed with the system of roads now subject to e-tolling. I lived most of my life in Joburg before moving to Cape Town 13 years ago and was again pleasantly surprised at how freely such masses of traffic can move on the roads most of the time.
My guess is that most motorists using the roads regularly will eventually buy e-tags.
One can dodge payment and try to frustrate the process, but there is a good chance that one will have to pay eventually, and then the cost will be a lot higher.
If the operating costs are lowered significantly and more money goes to the building of roads, I would not object to e-toll systems around Cape Town and Durban.
I think the principle that users should pay is a sound one. And as our president said, we have the most sophisticated infrastructure in the developing world that serves us and our economy well and we have to expect to pay for it.
The pressure groups and political parties now making noise about e-tolling should admit to being fast asleep when the idea of e-tolling was mooted.
One can’t wait until an expensive system like this is a fait accompli before you start complaining.
Those waging war against e-tolling should also admit that their battle is not purely about e-tolling, but that they are using the issue as an expression of their wider unhappiness about how we are governed. The ferocity of the campaign is rather out of proportion with the actual issue.
Let’s face it, the argument that it would hurt the poor most is invalid. The truth is that the poor use buses and taxis and they are exempt from paying e-tolls. It is the middle class and the rich who will be “hurt”.
The poor will only be affected when commodities become a few cents more expensive because of higher transport costs.
I have listened to many a vitriolic condemnation of e-tolls by people who won’t even be affected. They find the issue a handy stick with which to hit the ANC and the government.
It is perhaps legitimate to say this issue was the “last straw” that pushed the gatvol index over the top, but then we have to be honest about it.
I agree with constitutional law professor Pierre de Vos that e-tolls came about after a valid law (perhaps bad, but still valid) was passed by Parliament and that it does not infringe on the fundamental human rights of anyone. The refusal to obey a constitutionally valid law displays a worrying lack of respect for and understanding of democracy, he says.
The only other feasible way to pay for a sophisticated urban road infrastructure would be an additional fuel levy, which means the people of Musina, Kakamas and Lusikisiki will also have to pay for a stretch of roads they will probably never use.
When the government proposed a draconian Secrecy Bill that would have robbed us of much of our rights as citizens to know what was going on in our country, the public reaction was fairly lukewarm and it was down to a small group of free speech activists and opposition politicians to fight the battle.
I would argue that the right to a free flow of information is a rather more important issue than people of one part of our country having to pay to use upgraded roads.
Civil activism is becoming an increasingly important tool in our democracy. The work done by groups such as Equal Education, SECTION27, the Right2Know Campaign and others over the past few years has enriched our democratic system and more citizens should get involved.
But let’s choose our causes more honestly and carefully.
* Max du Preez is an author and columnist.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Newspapers.
Pretoria News