Tolls have never been popular. The bad reputation starts with Greek mythology where Charon the ferryman charged a toll to carry the dead across the Styx river to Hades. Bodies were buried in ancient Greece with a coin under the tongue or coins over the eyes in order to pay this toll. It's pretty grim to have to pay to journey to the underworld.

Driving on our roads is not as bad as that even though our road death rate is appallingly high.

Few people in Gauteng cared about the highway tolls until huge toll-collection gantries were erected. This spurred many previously apathetic people into a welcome civic activism to oppose the tolls.

It's united unlikely bedfellows such as COSATU and the Democratic Alliance.

Ruling party officials now distance themselves from the project or blame others.

National Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele says that national government refused funding for it three times after being requested by the Gauteng provincial government.

But Premier Nomvula Mokonyane said early last year "We have observed with serious concerns the announcement on the implementation of the tolling strategy which has been made ... with a lack of consultation, in particular with the Gauteng provincial government."

Nazir Alli, the head of the SA National Roads Agency (SANRAL) shot back: "It's most unfortunate the premier said that. I think everybody knows the extent of consultation that has taken place.... The Gauteng province initiated these projects, and then we all sat down together. We did the paperwork and the premier signed all of these papers."

ANC Gauteng Secretary David Makhura has said: "The tolling is going to hugely increase the cost of living and the cost of doing business in Gauteng. And the ANC Youth League in Gauteng is "vehemently opposed" to the tolls and demanded that it be shelved "immediately".

It is hard to find anyone except SANRAL to defend the tolls as the politicians all run for cover. The best that Gauteng Transport MEC Ismail Vadi could say after criticising the lack of consultation is that the tolls are a "done deal".

I predict that the tolls will be stopped once the political decision is taken to cancel the toll collection contract that amounts to about R11 billion over eight years.

We will have to pay some damages, but this will be cheaper than continuing with a collection system that costs about 35% of what is collected. Essentially, we will be paying about R1 biliion to collect R3 billion a year. What business could operate with such a high collection cost?

Compare this with the 1% cost of collection through a fuel levy. It is estimated that Gauteng contributed R15.3 billion (44%) of the R34.4 billion raised by the fuel levy for the tax year ending February 2011.

Gauteng also contributes about R260 billion (39%) of total taxes to central government, but only gets about R65 billion (18%) back to fund provincial government.

So there is a good case for adding a few cents on the fuel levy that would return a little more to the province that is the locomotive of our national economy.

Jack Bloom MPL, is DA Leader in the Gauteng Legislature. This article first appeared in The Citizen.

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