Johannesburg - DA premier candidate and Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga said when discussions around e-tolling for Gauteng started, they as the DA told the ANC government that the masses would not be able to afford them.
"The confused and failing ANC believe that just because you own a car, you can afford e-tolls, but this is not true," Solly Msimanga said.
Msimanga was speaking on Wednesday during the party's march to Gauteng premier David Makhura's office to protest against the controversial e-tolls and demanding that they be scrapped.
Other DA Gauteng leaders such as Midvaal mayor, Bongani Baloyi and the DA Gauteng Provincial leader, John Moodey were also part of the march.
Just a month ago, the ANC led a ‘People’s March’ to the Union Buildings in protest of e-tolls, corruption, fuel hikes, VAT increases and other concerns that “have a direct influence on the high cost of living”
Many ridiculed it, saying the ANC was marching against itself.
The e-toll service in Gauteng was launched five years ago, despite public outrage. Many motorists insisted that they would not pay for something they did not ask for them.
Msimanga said he had engaged with thousands of South Africans over the past few months and they said to him: "Bra Solly, Gauteng needs real change and a new government. We need an economy that opens fair access to real, long-term job and e-tolls must go because we cannot afford them nor did we ask for them."
Msimanga said not only were e-tolls another expensive tax but they also affected the economy because they add to the cost of doing business.
"I have heard stories and had people writing to the DA tell us that they must choose between employing more people or paying e-tolls. But premier David Makhura and the ANC do not care," he said.
Msimanga also said Makhura took them for fools regarding their intention to march.
"He tweeted to us today in response to our march and said we are a joke," he said.
He also accused Makhura of being a man of many promises who kept only a few.
"Premier Makhura has left an uninspiring legacy which has amounted to very little change of fortune for Gauteng’s 14 million residents.
"Since 2014, he has time and time again insisted – when it is strategically convenient, that e-tolls must go. He has marched, he established a commission – he has said a great many things, but the most important thing that he has not said is to both the Ministers of Transport and Finance – “do not renew the collection contract when it comes to an end”.
"It is now five years since this contemptuous tolling system was foisted upon us. Five long years of indecisiveness by the ANC," Msimang said.