Gauteng govt will borrow from financial institutions to pay e-toll debt: Lesufi
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi said on Tuesday the provincial government will borrow money from financial institutions to pay back e-toll debts.
The South African National Roads Agency is owed billions of rands in unpaid e-toll bills.
During his State of the Province Address in Johannesburg on Monday, Lesufi announced that the system would be scrapped in March.
Last year, during the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said the national government would scrap e-tolls and absorb the e-tolls debt by paying 70%, and the Gauteng government would pay 30% of the debts.
Briefing the media on Tuesday, Lesufi said the delay in scrapping the unpopular system was due to the processes which had to be followed, including finalising agreements with financial institutions.
“So, Treasury said that we are taking 30% in your next financial year…I mean, if you take R12 billion from our budget, health and education will suffer. So, that level of debate took long, and we could not start the process of removing the e-tolls until January this year.
“We met with the minister of transport and treasury and said this is how we want to repay the R12 billion. Don’t take it from our budget. We’ll go to financial institutions that are prepared to lend to us. Then we reached an agreement and, on the basis of that agreement, made the announcement that we would ungazette them because they were gazetted.”
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