COSATU welcomes ANC Gauteng decision on e-tolls

The Congress of South African Trade Unions welcomes the decisions taken by the Gauteng Provincial Conference of the African National Congress on e-tolls and fully supports the statement by the re-elected ANC Provincial Chairperson, Comrade Paul Mashatile, that "We can unequivocally state that our membership does not support e-tolls in its current form".

The conference agreed that "the current system is too expensive, traffic flow is negatively affected by urban tolling" and that "we would rather have a fuel levy for this administered by the South African Revenue Service".

This resolution follows the decision by the Gauteng Provincial Government to set up a panel to review the implementation of e-tolls, in response to widespread opposition to the privatisation of our highways, and the bullying and incompetence of the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) in trying to force motorists to pay to travel on roads they have already paid for though their taxes.

As Comrade Mashatile rightly said: "It's not that I don't like Sanral, but they must know their place. Government agencies don't run the country, the ANC does... Sanral cannot tell us what to do. We tell them what to do."

The federation is confident that the Panel will endorse its own view - that e-tolling is both wrong in principle - a commodification of what should be a basic public service - and a grossly wasteful and incompetent way of collecting revenue, which the big majority of motorists are rejecting by refusing to buy e-tags or pay their bills.

COSATU also agrees with the view expressed by Provincial Premier, Comrade David Makhura, that "the ANC had no policy on e-tolls so there was no need to take the issue to one of its senior decision-making bodies such as next year's national general council to be reviewed".

This reinforces COSATU's view that the ‘user-pay principle' is not contained in any ANC resolutions and so there was never any political decision to justify e-tolling.

We hope therefore that the ANC's National Executive Committee and government will now listen to the voice of the people of Gauteng and their political leadership in the ANC and scrap e-tolls. Money for basic public services like our highway network should be paid from taxation and not through the capitalist ‘user-pays principle', which implies that such services should only be available to those who can afford to pay.

At the same time, COSATU urges government to tackle the real problem of road congestion by speeding up the expansion and improvement of public transport services, so that motorists have an efficient, affordable safe alternative way to travel, which then becomes the preferred option and people will not be obliged to use their cars simply because there is no reliable alternative.

COSATU Gauteng continues to call upon all the motorists of Gauteng not to buy e-tags, not to pay bills, and not to be bullied by irregular and unlawful mini roadblocks by Sanral in the freeways.

We shall be stepping up the campaign against e-tolls on 18 October 2014 with a march and drive-slow to the Head-Office of Sanral in Tshwane, during which all those who have bought e-tags or are receiving bills from Sanral will be afforded an opportunity to burn them outside the Sanral office.

Statement issued by Patrick Craven, COSATU national spokesperson, October 7 2014

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