Durban – After almost a year of not collecting fees from vehicles passing through the Umvoti and oThongathi toll gates in the north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) has announced that would come to an end in nine days' time.
The roads agency announced on Wednesday that following a meeting with several stakeholders, it will now start collecting fees from April 1.
Toll fee collection at the two toll gates was suspended at the request of the provincial government following the devastating floods of April last year.
Early this year Sanral was forced to step back after announcing that it was going to resume toll fee collections from 1 February 2023.
This was after the decision was opposed by stakeholders including the KwaDukuza (Stanger) local municipality and business associations.
Some of them argued that the alternative roads like the M4, R102 and the Umdloti bridge were not yet repaired, leaving financially suffocated motorists battered by the floods with no alternative routes to use.
Sanral said all those issues have been resolved and it was resuming toll fee collections.
“Access to the R102 has been fully restored while the M4 is opened, except near the Tongaat river bridge.
“The contribution made to the people of KwaZulu Natal by Sanral not charging for these two tolls is between R400 and R500 million to date.
“We need to start collecting these toll fees to be able to maintain national roads,” said Dumisani Nkabinde, Sanral’s Eastern Regional Manager.
Sanral said the resumption of toll collection was discussed at a consultation on Tuesday, March 7, 2023, between Sanral, which was led by the chairman of the board, Themba Mhambi, and the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government, led by the MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Siboniso Duma.
Local government leaders, business chambers, SANTACO (taxi industry association) and members of traditional councils also joined in.
“Sanral is committed to the province of KwaZulu-Natal and we are happy that we had fruitful and constructive discussion with the political leadership of the province and various provincial stakeholders.
“We would like to resume with the toll collection on uMvoti and oThongathi on 1 April, 2023. We have embarked on all the relevant processes and procedures to make this possible,” said Sanral CEO, Reginald Demana.
Furthermore, Sanral said this decision t resume toll fees collection was gazetted by the Department of Transport last Friday (March 17).
It then said tolls on the N2 oThongathi north ramps will remain suspended until such time that access along the M4 Tongaat river bridge had been fully restored.
This is meant to ensure that the local community affected by the M4 closure at the Tongaat river bridge can continue to use the N2 toll road for the affected section at no cost, it said.
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