E-tolls ball is now in Ramaphosa’s court

Gauteng e-tolls are not off the table yet and it is now up to President Cyril Ramaphosa to consider whether they should be stopped or not.

This was announced by Gauteng Premier David Makhura yesterday, who also said there was a general understanding that the tolling system was unsustainable and costly to the people.

“While the user-pay principle is not in question, there is clear recognition that urban tolling increases the cost of living and is, therefore, unsustainable,” said Makhura.

“Proceeding from this consensus [is that] government teams are hard at work to find a solution to the e-tolls.

“President Ramaphosa has just reassured me again that the resolution of e-tolls matter is one of the issues that are receiving his urgent national attention.”

Last year, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni caused an outcry when he announced that “motorists must pay up, there was nothing for mahala”, referring to the e-toll system tax.

Delivering his final State of the Province (Sopa) address before the end of his term in office, Makhura said in Alberton yesterday his government upgraded and rehabilitated more than 5,000km of the provincial road network.

He said: “These are roads that have no e-tolls and they are funded through the provincial fiscus.”

The premier touched on the province’s ailing healthcare system, expressing concern that it was still beset by a crisis of trust.

“I’ve heard many stories during ntirhisano [working together in XiTsonga] from citizens who have gone into health facilities never hoping to come out alive,” he said. “This is an area of profound challenge in terms of service delivery and needs to be fixed now.”

However, Gauteng was hoping to benefit from Ramaphosa’s Economic Stimulus and Recovery Plan in which the president promised to help the province deal with shortages in its hospitals, including buying new medical equipment and linen, as well as filling of critical medical posts.

Despite the challenges the province faced, Makhura counted some of the success stories, including the fact that Gauteng’s average life expectancy had improved from 54 years in 2006 to 64 years last year.

Also, the successful rollout of the antiretroviral treatment had drastically reduced mother-to-child HIV transmission in the province to 0.68%, “which is very close to our target of 0%”.

All the families whose members died in the Life Esidimeni tragedy had been paid their dues but the office of the master of the high court was busy working on claims that came after the awards were made last year.

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