A vote for the DA is a vote against e-tolls

Note to editors: The following speech was delivered by DA Gauteng Premier Candidate, Mmusi Maimane, at the "Fight e-tolls, Vote DA" rally outside the Gauteng Legislature, downtown Joburg, today.

Today we stand outside the Legislature of the Gauteng Province to say NO to e-tolls.

We stand outside the office where the ANC Premier of Gauteng gave the green-light to e-tolls back in 2008.

We are here because we are angry, and we are here because we must take a stand.

We are angry that the government has forced e-tolls onto us, and this week it turned on the system to start taking our money away.

But democrats, we are here mostly because we know that there is an alternative to e-tolls.

Today as we stand here, I am positive that there is hope to challenge this e-toll scheme. 

We know that e-tolls should never have been launched, and we know that we can fight e-tolls.

In next year's election YOU can vote against e-tolls.

And you can vote for the party that will give everything to fighting e-tolls in this Province. 

Only the DA has a plan to stop e-tolls, and only the DA will fight for you to bring this daylight robbery to account.

Our destiny is in our hands.

I have lived in Gauteng my whole life. I am a born and bred Gauteng citizen. 

Growing up in Dobsonville, Soweto I always dreamed of this province fulfilling its potential and being the province of greatness.

What I never dreamed of, was that we would one day stand here, as forgotten citizens protesting the government for working against us.

We thought that we had escaped this after 1994. I never dreamed that things would get to the point where the people would have to march and protest against government helping itself to our hard-earned money.

Everyday I drive the highways of Gauteng, and everyday I see the people of this province doing the same thing. People need freedom of movement to get to business opportunities and to get to places where they are trying to make better lives for themselves.

Transport links should connect and integrate us. What e-tolls will do is keep us separate and apart. This is just like the past. We cannot go forward when we are apart. Nazir 

Alli is the PW Botha of today.

And every time I pass under an e-toll gantry I think of the millions more who will do the same. I reflect then on just how much money will be taken from us. And I reflect on how much more we will all have to pay to get the things we need across the roads of this province.

It angers me, and it saddens me that people who struggle every day to get ahead will now face this unbearable burden on their wallets. E-tolls can run up to thousands per month for each of us. Nobody has that much to throw away!

The e-toll scheme was forced onto us after big upgrades were done to the Gauteng freeways.

We must acknowledge that upgrades and improvements are welcome. We do not stand against better roads, which make travel and transport easier for more and more people and supplies, every day.

New highways mean quicker movement of people, and quicker movement of goods.

But it is the government's responsibility to build these roads, as much as it is the government's responsibility to pay for these roads fairly!

Instead the government of Zuma's ANC rushed to build these new freeways, and signed us into this debt, without consulting us - now they tell us to pay them back.

I see no fairness in that.

But even worse, government has already collected every single cent from us that it needs to upgrade ALL of the freeways in South Africa.

Yes democrats, we have already paid for the freeway improvements, through the fuel levy since 1998.And what did government do with this money? It blew it!

It spent our money on Nkandla, and on private airplane flights for the governing elites. It spent that money on making politicians in Zuma's ANC richer, but only made us poorer.

Look at the Premier of this Province - she wants us to spend R570,000.00 on the swimming pool in her garden. More than half a million rand for a pool. While so many people go without a house to live in.

The truth is that all of our money which we have already paid, has been wasted by this government. And now they tell us to pay again.

I see no fairness in that.

Today's rally is about every road user in Gauteng, and every person who buys things transported by road.

It is about the small business owner, it is about the entrepreneur, it is about the single mom with two small children, it is about the young person who has managed to find a job after 3 years of looking - And it is about you, the resident of Gauteng. In fact, it is about all of us.

As e-tolls start to tally up, so the prices of everything in Gauteng will rise. Anything transported by road will now become more expensive. 

Business will become more expensive, and instead of creating jobs, jobs will be killed. What we really need is jobs, in Gauteng!

But e-tolls will take jobs away. E-tolls will halt job creation. And e-tolls will shut small businesses down.

In Orange Farm I met with a small business owner who told me that he has to drive into the city to buy stock. He passes under five e-toll gantries when he drives in.

That trip he makes will cost him hundreds and hundreds of Rands each month. E-tolls will destroy his business, and will take all of the money out of his wallet.

I see no fairness in that.

Democrats the e-toll system was proudly brought to us by this ANC government and today we tell this ANC government to proudly take their e-tolls back.

We do not want them. We do not need them. And we will stand against them.

The e-toll system is set up to rob us of our money. And it is set up to transfer millions and millions of rands out of South Africa.

Yes, millions of our money will leave our country to go to the company that the government gave the e-toll tender to, in Europe.

Democrats, do you know how much that amount is which will leave South Africa? R670-million every year!

Before a single cent stays in South Africa, R670-million must first disappear from our country. And there it will make the European shareholders very rich, while e-tolls here will make our people poor.

I see no fairness in that.

President Zuma says that we must not think like Africans in Africa. But African countries in Africa seem to be getting it right, investing in infrastructure, NOT funnelling money to European companies.

In Kenya they spend money on communication infrastructure, not on sending money to Europe. And their economy grows, while our economy does not. 

I see no fairness in that.

Perhaps we must think like Africans in Africa.

E-tolls arrived here without anyone consulting us on them. The public was never asked about this system. In fact, only 28 people were heard, in a province of 12,3-million people. Just Twenty Eight!

All of this, and in addition they threaten us with prosecution in court if we don't pay our e-tolls.

But here is what I believe will really happen:

SANRAL will do everything to coerce us to buy e-tags. So they will be selective in who they choose to prosecute, and they will prosecute high-profile people in every court they can. 

These will be nothing more than soapie drama shows.

That is why I have said before, and say today again: I challenge Nazir Alli, CEO of SANRAL, to come on record and refute this.If he refuses to do this, we know that this is all just a circus. And it is unconstitutional too.

I see no fairness in that.

But democrats, as much as we are here today to protest, we are also here with a strong message of hope.

We have always stood against e-tolls, and we will continue to fight e-tolls. The DA is the party with the plan to fight e-tolls, the will to fight e-tolls and the real chance to fight e-tolls.

We have challenged this scheme from the start, and are currently in court challenging the e-toll Act of Parliament. We say that Act was never put through Parliament properly.

This fight is currently in Court, and is a fight that we believe in strongly. We will fight this all the way, because we say that the ANC proudly brought you e-tolls through an Act of Parliament that is illegitimate. 

I see no fairness in that.

This week our banner has flown along the e-toll routes, to show the motorists of Gauteng that there is an alternative to e-tolls.

You saw that banner in the fly past earlier. It tells the people of Gauteng that there is an alternative to e-tolls.

Our rallying call is "Fight e-tolls. Vote DA".

You were never asked to have your say on e-tolls. But in next year's election you can have your say.

In next year's election you get the chance to vote against the government that pushed e-tolls through, and to vote instead for a government ready to fight e-tolls.

I am running to be elected Premier of Gauteng next year. And I need your support.

As Premier, I have pledged to do everything in my power to stop e-tolls.

This will start with calling on every person in this great province to vote on e-tolls in a referendum.

I want your voice to be heard. I will never silence you like the ANC.

With that vote we will enter a dispute with the National Government on e-tolls, and with your support we will fight them to the end.

And if the National Government comes knocking on my door to put more e-tolls in our province, we will go to court to interdict them based on the will of the people in the referendum.

The fact is that we can maintain and build every road we need from the fuel levy we already have in place. Its easier to collect and requires no administration by a European company.

All that we need is a government that can properly manage that money. And a government that is not so deeply corrupt to its core.

If we cut corruption, we can save over R30-billion every year. Almost Thirty One Billion Rand in fact.

And that is why we promise to cut out corruption, and open government up.

In Gauteng alone over R6-billion was wasted on corruption last year. I want to get that money back into being spent on us, the people!

We will never need e-tolls when we save that much. And that is why we promise to deliver safe, reliable public transport. And how about traffic lights that actually work? I have lost count of the number of traffic lights that are broken and neglected in this Province.

People should be free to move on public transport, not be charged e-tolls when they have to use the roads. People must be free to move from home to work, work to play and to gain access to one another.

My vision is that the CEO of the biggest bank in South Africa rides the bus, train or taxi because it is safe and reliable. That CEO must share the bus with the clerk who works in their bank.

So this is how I will lead Gauteng -

I will stop wastage, for more delivery

I will deliver safe, reliable public transport

I will fight e-tolls with the people of Gauteng.

Nothing could be more worthwhile than taking up this cause for the people of Gauteng.

In next year's election, we can vote against e-tolls. We can vote for the party that will fight e-tolls.

And you can stand with me, and stand on the side of change in Gauteng - together, we can make Gauteng great!

Together we can fight e-tolls.

Our destiny is in our hands!

Issued by the DA, December 5 2013

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