ANC in Gauteng: E-tolls remain ‘elephant in the room’

In the letter the party expresses its disappointment that the president’s state of the nation speech did not resolve the future of the unpopular system. 

The ANC in Gauteng, together with its alliance partner Cosatu, marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria last year where they handed over a memorandum to the presidency demanding that e-tolls be scrapped.

However, both Transport Minister Blade Nzimande and Finance Minister Tito Mboweni have said there are no plans to do away with the system and have urged motorists to pay their outstanding bills. 

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In the open letter, the ANC’s provincial secretary Jacob Khawe said the party is deeply disappointed that Ramaphosa did not move to resolve the future of the system, as it remains deeply unpopular and most motorists refuse to pay. 

"We would have expected since the November march that a consideration would be done by national government on an intervention in the urban e-tolling, because since then we have said clearly that among other problems in the high cost of living in our province is the e-tolls.

"The current e-toll system is making it heavy for our people to make business, for our people to socially engage and generally that the e-tolls have been part of the problem if you want to address to economic conditions of our people," Khawe told Jacaranda FM News. 

 He said the fact that most motorists refuse the pay has created an impression that they are not law-abiding citizens.

"It's beginning to create a society of non law-abiding people, a society of people who don't care whether this is right or wrong. This will create long term problems for the ANC and long term problems for the country to have a nation  of people who are not abiding by the rules. We generally have to remove them so that we don't build a society that we didn't intend to do.”

Open letter: