COSATU Memorandum on Open Road Tolling
7th March 2012
To be delivered to representatives of government in every Province
Honourable representatives of government, comrades
We, as representatives of COSATU wish to convey to you our total opposition to the introduction of open road tolling in Gauteng and the planned introduction of the same in other parts of the country including Durban and Cape Town amongst others, for the following reasons:-
1. First and foremost, the tolls will add to the burdens of the poor.
The tolls will put a direct burden on the poor of Gauteng and our country broadly, who will be forced to pay for travelling on the tolled roads.
They will also put an indirect burden on the poor of the whole of South Africa, by adding to the cost of transporting goods within and to and from our industrial heartland. It will have an immediate effect on food inflation.
It is quite clear that if the tolling goes ahead, it will be extended to urban areas in other Provinces, spreading the pressures on the poor.
It must be noted that it is not true that the poor are not the users of our motorways. Many low income earners in our country use private cars to travel to work, precisely because our public transport system is so unreliable. Public transport is also unavailable during outside of peak commuter hours, including weekends, when Gauteng residents travel distances across the Province to visit friends, attend funerals, etc.
2. Our second objection is that the tolls will perpetuate exclusion
We already live in a society highly divided by income disparities. The poorest 10% of the population shares R1.1bn whilst the richest 10% shares R381bn.
The logic of those who say that the poor do not use our motorways, except by public transport, is that they should be permanently excluded from access to the best roads. They must find the potholed side-roads to get from A to B, while the rich glide along in their fancy cars.
The toll roads are therefore a reminder of the divisions that still exist in terms of access to basic services. Good health and education services currently belong to the wealthier sections of society, who can afford to pay. We do not want yet another addition to the list such divided services, especially in the context where good progress is being made in the health sector, to bring about one universal service.
3. Our third objection is that public transport is totally inadequate
We acknowledge that government has now exempted registered public transport vehicles from the tolls. However, the fact of the matter is that public transport remains woefully inadequate both in quality and in the numbers of people that it serves.
A third of our people use private cars to get to and from work. This is not a free choice. It is because our public transport system is expensive, unsafe, and unreliable.
The promises of massive investment in our overcrowded, run-down commuter rail services is good news, but this will take years to come on stream. So where are the new bus services? Apart from the BRTs in Joburg and Cape Town, not a single new subsidised bus route has been put in place for over ten years! And where is the enforcement of safe conditions in the taxi industry?
The use of our motorways by private cars is therefore not a luxury for most users. If the users are forced off the motorways because of cost, they will not transfer to non-existent reliable public transport. They will take their cars on to the side roads, and create levels of congestion that our municipalities will not be able to cope with. Traffic management will become a nightmare, and it is highly likely that our already shocking road fatality statistics will rise.
4. Finally, the tolls represent a form of privatisation, which we have always been opposed to
COSATU has an unwavering record of being opposed to privatisation. The introduction of a tolling system that brings in the private sector to operate the tolled roads is, in our view, nothing else but privatisation.
What makes it worse is that the contracts signed with the toll operators remain a secret. All the evidence indicates that the revenues from the tolls are going to be enormous, and that the loans will be paid off quickly, leaving the private operator to milk the public.
This is why we have consistently argued that the fiscus must be directly involved in the funding of road infrastructure. If additional revenues have to be raised by government, then this must be done in a way where the burden is fairly shared through a progressive tax system. We pay taxes so that government can build and maintain roads, hospitals, schools, etc.
In the meantime, we are convinced that if more effort were put into stopping fraud and corruption, then the money would be easily available to cover the costs of road construction and maintenance.
For all of the above reasons, we demand the dismantling of the Gauteng motorway gantries, and the immediate halting, for good, of the Gauteng open tolls.
Signed on behalf of Government:
Signed on behalf of Labour:
Issued by COSATU, March 7 2012
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