The ring of roads encircling greater Johannesburg were built in the late sixties and early seventies.
There is the Western Bypass (N1), Eastern Bypass (N3), Southern Bypass (N12) which were built to alleviate pressure of traffic congestion in and around the perimeters of the city were never National Roads. They were basically part of the Johannesburg Network of Municipal roads.
Later they were linked to the network of the National Highways. But in reality they are still municipal roads.
For 40 years I have driven on these roads lawfully! The roads were built with taxpayers’ money; they were maintained with fuel levies.
When apartheid was ousted in 1994 this process continued. When South Africa was chosen to host the Fifa World Cup, Fifa contributed enormous sums of money towards expenses. The government arrogantly refused to disclose the amounts to the public. They added some lanes to the existing roads, which was an absolute necessity due to the increase in traffic since 1994, with or without the 2010 World Cup. I am pretty certain that the Fifa contribution and also tax money was used to pay for these.
They clandestinely did a deal with some Austrian Company to install these Toll Gates, for traffic control purposes, without proper advisary process and consultation to and with us, the public, the main shareholders of any works for public use.
I suspect that there were a few “brown envelopes” dished out to a few parliamentarians who are now determined that these Toll Gates must be paid for by the public by means of Toll Fees.Well they did not ask us and when they did the answer was no! So they made a law and henceforth all previously lawful road users who refuse to pay toll fees will now be criminals! This process in South Africa is called democracy? I will continue to use the roads as before and will not pay!
Friedrich Kruger
