COSATU North West on the Swartruggens toll gate
The announcement by the Minister of Transport ,Ms Dipuo Peters that all local motorists and frequent users, will qualify for the same discount as is currently enjoyed by farmers, at the Swartruggens toll plaza has the support of the federation in the province.
The Minister made this announcement during the launch of the road safety month, on the 6th October 2015. The farmers currently get between 90% and 75% discount.
Cosatu is also happy that the minister has made a commitment that ,there will be no further increases at the toll plaza, until the matter is resolved. We believe that this is the step in the right direction.
We are, however concerned about the delay in the implementation of the agreed reduction of the toll fees. The federation is also concerned about the state of our roads in the province. It is irresponsible and alarming to see that during the construction of roads, there are no attempts to build alternative parallel roads, although we have raised the issue in our memorandum of demands
COSATU reiterate its call to the minister to deal with the three outstanding matters that include the reduction of the toll fee to R58; the construction of an alternative road parallel to the toll road and attending to the current dilapidated state of our roads in the province.
We salute all those, who supported our campaign since 2011.We call on them to support us again in the next two weeks, when we march to demand the final reduction of the toll fees to R58, 00.
We expect the minister to give her response on or before the 30th October 2015. If she fails, we will be forced to revive our campaign, because we only suspended it based on the understanding we had with her.
Issued by Solly Phetoe, COSATU North West Provincial Secretary, 12 October 2015
