'Mboweni must keep quiet on e-tolls’

Makhura addressed thousands of marchers at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. 

Various civil society organisations joined the ANC and its alliance parents in a protest against the user-pay system, as well as the high costs of data, petrol and public transport.

“We want the ministers to keep quiet, because as we are exploring options. The ministers must keep quiet and not speak a lot,” Makhura told the crowd. 

Makhura’s comments came after Mboweni, during his maiden Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), said that motorists must pay for e-tolls.

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Mboweni’s statement has drawn the ire of the provincial ANC, who resolved to do away with the unpopular system at its conference last year. 

Makhura maintained that the party is not against tolling in principle, but would not stand for urban tolling.

“We are not opposed to the user-pay principle, we are opposed to urban tolling. You can’t create tolls in a congested system here, in the way it was done."

The ANC said it has come up with various alternative ways to pay the e-tolls debt, which currently stands at around R11 billion.  

In its memorandum, which received by Energy Minister Jeff Radebe, the party requested President Cyril Ramaphosa to ook into some of the  proposed solutions.