LISTEN: Godongwana 'not aware' of agreement to scrap e-tolls in March

 He answered questions in Parliament on Thursday after tabling his budget the previous day.

During his State of the Province Address on Monday, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi assured residents that the gantries would be switched off next month.

"Last year, we assured the people of Gauteng that e-tolls would be a thing of the past. I am happy to report that on the 26th of January 2024, a final meeting was held between the Gauteng provincial government and the ministers of finance and transport, respectively,” Lesufi said.

"From where we sit as the province, we remain confident that we should be able to end e-toll by March 2024.”

LISTEN TO LESUFI BELOW 

However, the finance minister said there are still outstanding questions that need answers before such an agreement can be finalised.

" We had an agreement with the premier of Gauteng, and that agreement is that we will settle the debt 70:30 split between the national and provincial government.

“We have made our own commitment and gave SANRAL money last year, so the province has to give us money. Second, the province has to answer the question, who is going to do the maintenance? That is a discussion they are having with the Department of Transport.

“Unless an agreement is tied down, I  can't make a commitment as to when the gantries can go," says Godongwana.

Godongwana said the province has to deal with their funding issues before the matter is finalised.

"To my knowledge, there are conditions precedent, signing that  agreement, Gauteng government getting funding somewhere if they don't have resources, and then once that is in place, then we can start talking business unless those conditions are met, there is no way we can talk about dealing with that issue.”

LISTEN TO GODONGWANA BELOW

The South African National Roads Agency is owed billions of rands in unpaid e-toll bills.

Last year, during the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, Godongwana said the national government would scrap e-tolls and absorb the e-tolls debt by paying 70%. The Gauteng government would pay 30% of the debts.

Briefing the media a day after his SOPA, 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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