SAFTU will fight threat to blackmail e-toll resisters
5 April 2018
The South African Federation of Trade Unions is alarmed at reports that when the Administration Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Bill, currently being debated in the National Council of Provinces, comes into effect, drivers who default on their e-toll payments could lose demerit points and ultimately their licences.
SAFTU remains resolutely opposed to e-tolls which are an attempt to turn our roads, which should be a public service, into an expensive commodity which imposes immense hardships on drivers, especially those who have no alternative but to use their car to get to and from work or take children to school.
The mass campaign against e-tolls proves that millions of motorists share SAFTU’s view. It has led to only 29% of the estimated 1.2 million Gauteng motorists paying their bills, causing a R3.6 billion deficit in outstanding payments.
The ANC government should therefore have long ago scrapped the whole rotten and failed policy. The new Transport Minister, Communist Party leader, Blade Nzimande, should by have knocked the final nail into the coffin of the e-tolls.