A date has been set for the controversial e-toll system to be shut down, with plans already underway to repurpose the infrastructure to improve road safety and combat crime.

Government gazetted the withdrawal of seven toll roads in Gauteng on Friday, March 28 to take effect from 23:59:59 on April 11.

The e-toll scheme was first switched on on December 3, 2013.

The news was announced in a joint statement by Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, and Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi after a meeting between the parties on March 27 when an agreement was reached to de-link the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Plan (GFIP) e-tolls from the gantries.

“This will effectively bring the urban e-tolling in Gauteng to an end,” read the statement.

However, the ring roads that were part of the scheme shall remain national roads.

“Parties agreed to enter into a memorandum of agreement (MoA) to formalise alternative funding solutions for the GFIP debt repayment and deal with the backlog of maintenance and rehabilitation costs,” said the statement.

The e-toll project debt amounts to about R13bn.

According to the statement, the MoA would also regulate the financial and funding contribution towards the Sanral liability.

It was also unanimously agreed that Gauteng had to contribute to the backlog of maintenance and rehabilitation, and this be included in the MoA.

Once the gantries have been de-linked, they will be repurposed to improve mobility, road safety, and combat crime.

“The user-pay principle remains government policy and it commits to continually engage and work together to explore adequate and stable funding solutions for road construction, maintenance, and upgrade to support economic development,” the statement concluded.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) welcomed the news.

“Outa was formed exactly 12 years ago in March 2012 to tackle the irrational scheme and the constitutional concerns arising from Government’s decision to introduce an e-toll scheme to Gauteng’s upgraded freeways,” said Outa CEO, Wayne Duvenage.

It has been a long road, but today we can officially celebrate the end of e-tolling in Gauteng.”

Outa said that it was never opposed to the user-pays principle, or the use of electronic tolling technology that Sanral attempted to use.

“Outa’s biggest concerns related to the lack of transparency, a meaningless public consultation process, a cumbersome and largely unworkable administrative process, which made the scheme unenforceable and dead in the water before it even got out of the starting blocks.”