Mboweni’s Twar confirms that e-Tolls are here to stay

6 July 2019

Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni’s Twitter outburst, attacking Gauteng Premier David Makhura’s comments during his State of the Province Address regarding e-Tolls confirms what the DA has said all along, that under the ANC, e-Tolls are here to stay.

Taking to Twitter, Mboweni lambasted Makhura, stating that the unjust user-pay system on Gauteng’s freeways will not be removed under his watch.

It is Minister Mboweni, not Premier Makhura, who pulls the country’s purse strings and has the final say on how taxes are raised.

Since the gantries were switched on in December 2013, the ANC has consistently spoken with a forked tongue on the matter. When it is convenient, they claim that the system will be scrapped. But when the truth comes out, it is clear that they care not for the plight of Gauteng’s residents.

In the years since the e-Tolls went live, numerous businesses have shut down due to the added, unjust, costs that they have not been able to carry.

Private road users have been threatened with criminal records for non-compliance should they refuse to be fleeced of their hard earned money.

Ninety percent of the money collected from those who do pay is sent overseas and what is left barely makes a dent in re-paying SANRAL’s bonds.

Money that is collected through other streams of revenue such as renewal fees and levies contribute to paying for our roads.

Convoluted extortions schemes such as the e-Toll system does not.

With the economy in the perilous state that it is, Gauteng’s residents are stretched thin and can not afford to take on additional, unjust taxes.

Mboweni’s utterances that the people who cannot afford the e-Tolls don’t pay because public transport is exempt from the system do not pay shows how far removed the ANC are from the lived experience of the vast majority of Gauteng’s residents.

On Thursday, the DA indicated that if, by August, the e-Toll gantries are still on, we will take steps to declare an inter-governmental dispute to have the system set aside.

No longer can the people of Gauteng be hoodwinked by the ANC’s double standards on e-Tolls.

We will not stand by while the people of Gauteng continue to suffer under ANC factionalism and double-speak.

Issued by Solly Msimanga, DA Gauteng Caucus Leader, 6 July 2019