Further evidence against e-tolling revealed

In a reply to a DA parliamentary question, the Minister of Transport, Ben Martins, has revealed that the fuel levy was not considered at all by the government to pay for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP), when the decision was taken in 2008.

In a further parliamentary reply, the Minister also revealed that discussions between the then Minister of Transport, S'bu Ndebele, and the National Treasury commenced in 2010 regarding the ring fencing of funds in the Road Maintenance Fund for the use of road maintenance. This however has not been finalised or completed.

Read together, these replies reveal that the government did not explore all options in finding alternative funding for the GFIP, and therefore could not possibly have opted for e-tolling on the basis of careful and in-depth consideration.

Given this latest revelation, I will write to President Zuma and appeal to him not to sign the e-tolling Bill into law. Furthermore, I will request that he establish a full scale investigation into what alternatives exist to the e-tolling model before the e-tolling programme is implemented and enforced.

These latest revelations come on the back of a similar finding made in the Presidential Review into state owned enterprises (SOE's) which was released yesterday. Recommendation 21 of the report suggests that funding of social infrastructure, including roads, should have less reliance on the ‘user pays' principle, and more on taxes. In fact, the SOE report recommends that government should not use the user pay principle as the only source of sourcing capital.

The Department of Transport and the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL's) argument in favour of e-tolling is fast unravelling.

It is being shown-up for what it really is: an ill-thought out plan, with little or no public consultation, to place the burden of years of bad planning on poor South Africans in Gauteng.

It also begs the question: why is the government so adamant on pursuing this programme when there was little attempt to find an alternative? Who is really going to benefit from e-tolling?

These are questions which must now be answered. Until such stage as they are, and there is a full investigation into alternatives, the e-tolling project must be halted.

Statement issued by Ian Ollis MP, DA Shadow Minister of Transport, May 29 2013

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter