Msimanga calls on Ramaphosa not to renew e-toll contract

He was briefing the media at the e-toll gantry on the N12 near Benoni. 

Msimanga says Ramaphosa is also expected to announce more stringent measures to deal with non-payment of e-toll bills. 

“We are paying more than R5.70 cents per liter of petrol, we are paying for license renewals for our vehicles and so many taxes. The Road Accident Fund is not getting enough money from the fuel levy, where is the money going to? There is enough money to be paying for these things and South Africans should never be charged more than what they should be.”

The organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) recently revealed that Sanral (The South African National Roads Agency) has proposed stringent measures for motorists who aren’t paying their e-tolls.  

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Only 30% of Gauteng motorists are said to be paying for their taxes and has racked up outstanding e-toll debts of R11 billion. 

Outa says one of the measures proposed to Parliament’s transport committee is for vehicle licenses to be withheld when there is non-compliance. 

“Sanral has hinted at farfetched plans to have SARS act as their collection agents. This will be extremely difficult for them to do both legally and practically, adding further complexity to SARS’s collection woes. This is the last thing that SARS needs on their hands and will add significant legal challenges for them to do so,” the organisastion said in a statement. 

“The Western Cape has gone to court and have actually won their case against Sanral and if there was a willingness from Gauteng to do the same thing we could see these gantries being put down,” said Msimanga. 

Outa has indicated it is prepared to go to court to challenge Sanral if these proposals are put in place.

He says the DA in the National Assembly will submit questions to the president on how much money has actually been raised through e-tolls in Gauteng and whether there is enough funds to maintain the freeways.