Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane did some nifty footwork in the face of howls of outrage over the proposed Gauteng toll road fees. She claimed that the high toll rate was a complete surprise to her, and met with Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele.
The gazetted toll fees have now been suspended until June, which is conveniently after the local government elections. It's wonderful how elections concentrate politicians' minds, but we shouldn't be taken for suckers.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has emphasised that there will be no bail-out from the national treasury. The gantries and cameras are installed on the freeways, and are going to be used to collect tolls.
The tariffs will probably be lowered somewhat, but there's a R20 billion loan that has to be paid off. It will be easy to raise the rate later once the system is up and running.
The crazy thing is that the total cost of the fancy toll collection system is reportedly R6.2 billion in the first 8 years. This is nearly a third of the cost of the entire freeway project.
It means that about 30% of the toll fees will be going just to pay for the cost of the collection system! And the consortium that's running it is 85% foreign owned.