ANC in Gauteng not serious about abolishing e-toll 

16 July 2019

The Gauteng Premier, David Makhura, indicated with the answers he gave during the question and answer session in the Legislature today that the ANC in Gauteng is not serious about abolishing e-toll. The entire process seems to be no more than window-dressing by the Premier for the sake of popularity.

Adv Anton Alberts, FF Plus MPL, asked the Premier if he would be willing to implement the formal processes as stipulated in the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act (Act 13 of 2005), which is there to direct disputes between different levels of government.

The Premier can thus declare a formal dispute with the national government regarding e-toll. If all the prescribed remedies in the Act have been exhausted, then the province can take the national government to court.

The FF Plus also asked the Premier if he would indeed be willing to take the national government to court if all the Act's remedies had been exhausted.

The Premier's responses to these questions were vague and evasive as he only said that there is currently a process ongoing between him and the President and that he does not want to run ahead of things.

The FF Plus, however, has a problem with that answer seeing as the process with the President is informal and falls outside of the regulations of the relevant Act. There are also no guarantees regarding the outcome of this process.

The FF Plus is of the opinion that the Premier must follow a formal process if the Gauteng ANC is truly serious about abolishing e-toll.

Should the process with the President fail, the FF Plus will put pressure on the Premier to implement the processes of the relevant Act so as to ultimately take the national government to court in order to have e-toll abolished.

The people of Gauteng simply cannot live with the uncertainty regarding e-toll any longer.

Issued by Anton Alberts, FF Plus MPL and caucus leader: Gauteng Legislature, 16 July 2019