Gauteng Toll Fees
The SACP has noted the recent public debate about the proposed toll fees in Gauteng. The SACP finds the proposed fees shocking. We concur with those who have already pointed out that the fees will have a massive impact particularly on the lives of the working class and poor in Gauteng. The tolls will impact on the cost of transport, including public transport, but also on basic necessities like food.
The congestion experienced on Gauteng's roads is the result of poor spatial planning, including the perpetuation of far-flung apartheid-era dormitory townships for the poor, and private property speculator-driven town-house and shopping-mall developments for suburbanised middle-classes. Gauteng, along with congestion plagued cities like greater Los Angeles and Atlanta, has amongst the lowest density urban forms in the world. It is well known internationally that you do not solve problems of congestion by endlessly widening and upgrading freeways. There is a temporary relief that simply encourages more speculator driven property developments and further sprawl, long commutes, and more congestion.
We have to address the problems of congestion in Gauteng and the loss of productivity (and increased carbon emissions that result) through state-led spatial planning that focuses on mixed-use and mixed-income medium density settlement patterns, and on a major investment in integrated public transport that focuses on mass mobility.
The present R20-billion Gauteng Freeway Improvement project like the R25,5-billiion Gautrain project are costly projects that fail to address the underlying spatial, accessibility and mobility challenges. Multi-billion rand projects that are not aligned to our developmental objectives, that do not address the challenges of mobility and access facing the working class and, indeed, the majority of Gauteng's citizens, and that feed into the apartheid spatial planning patterns are not a solution.
The SACP calls on government to assess infrastructure development programmes differently going forward, guided by a clear set of strategic priorities. As with the Gautrain we are now stuck with new infrastructure and we must make the best of it that we can. We call on the Minister of Transport to urgently review the proposed toll fees. We also call on government to urgently review the planned second phase of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement project. The SACP also calls on government to ascertain whether the current Competitions Commission investigation into multi-billion rand collusive activity on the part of the civil engineering sector has any bearing on the cost of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement project and the enormous cost that the public now has to face for this project.
Statement issued by Malesela Maleka, SACP Spokesperson, February 18 2011
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