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Treasury still undecided on scrapping, as e-toll price hikes come into effect
Motorists in Gauteng will pay for more e-tolls, despite promises earlier this year that they would be scrapped.
An E-toll gantry is seen along the N1 near Roodepoort on 28 February 2021. Picture: Michel Bega
Amid uncertainty on whether e-tolls will be scrapped or not, motorists in Gauteng who do pay their e-toll accounts will have to pay more following a price hike.
The South African National Road Agency Limited (Sanral) last week announced that it will make adjustments to the annual toll tariffs, including those of e-tolls.
The new tariffs – effective from Tuesday, 1 March – has increased by 5% in line with the consumer price index (CPI).
The increases were gazette and published earlier in February by Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula.
Decision on e-tolls
The price hikes comes a week after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s budget speech.
Godongwana was expected to make a pronouncement on the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) saga during his maiden budget speech last Wednesday.
Mbalula indicated in November 2021 that Cabinet had finally decided to end the scheme. However, the minister also pointed out that the National Treasury stopped the implementation of the decision.
Following Godongwana’s failure to mention e-tolls in his speech, Treasury says a decision on e-tolls will be communicated in due course.
“When we have made sufficient progress, the necessary announcements will be made,” Treasury told The Citizen recently.
Stefanie Fick, executive director of the accountability division at the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has maintained that the GFIP was “an unlawful scheme” because of the lack of public engagement.
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She told The Citizen that government should accept that the e-tolls project was unsuccessful, as the compliance rate currently stood at 15%, adding that Sanral was funded by government to deal with maintain roads across the country.
Sanral is expected to receive an additional R9.9 billion for maintaining the non-toll road network for the 2022/2023 fiscal year as announced by Godongwana during his speech.
Fick added that Outa would defend any member of the public who is summoned by Sanral to pay their e-toll debt.
“Even if they decide to go ahead with e-tolls, we still have our collateral challenge due in the high court. We are still defending people in all the magistrate’s courts around the country.
“There’s a group of cases that we will argue whether Sanral can go after individuals who are not paying e-tolls. There is currently a case in the high court, but because of the indecision on e-tolls it is standing still.
“But the minute government or the Sanral board decide that they are going to go after people again…. That case will start where it stopped. So we will just continue our fight against this unlawful scheme,” she said.
Outa’s previous attempts to have e-tolls declared illegal were rejected by the Pretoria High as well the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
However, the high court’s judgment left open the possibility of a legal challenge if and when Sanral issued summonses.
Price hike
Meanwhile, the 5% increase on e-tolls has not been met well by the Democratic Alliance (DA), who expressed “disappointment” at the price hike.
“This is extremely disappointing as it means that for at least the last five years the people of Gauteng have been lied to about e-tolls. Every year since 2018, the Minister of Transport, Premier David Makhura and MEC for Roads and Transport have been promising that e-tolls will be scrapped,” the DA said in a statement on Tuesday.
The party said that the e-toll tariffs were putting strain on the burdened motorists whose budgets were already tight.
“The DA maintains that e-tolls have no place in Gauteng and they should be scrapped immediately. It is high time that Mbalula makes a firm decision on e-tolls.”
While a final decision on e-tolls is yet to be made, Godongwana informed Parliament last Thursday that the user-pay principle would be retained in some form.
READ MORE: Government must ‘bite the bullet’ and make a decision on e-tolls, says Sanral CEO
Minister in The Presidency Mondli Gungubele, in September last year, also insisted that government was in support of a user-pay policy on e-tolls.
E-tolls, which were implemented in December 2013, was immediately met with hostility, with many members of the public refusing to pay.
This led to President Cyril Ramaphosa appointing a task team to resolve the impasse over e-tolls back in 2019.
Gauteng MEC for roads infrastructure Jacob Mamabolo also voiced the official position of the provincial government on e-tolls remains that they must be scrapped.
