Outa: E-tolls ‘will be gone by election day’
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) believes the unpopular Gauteng e-toll system will be a thing of the past before election day in May.
The organisation was reacting to Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s maiden speech in Cape Town on Wednesday.
In his budget statement, Mboweni emphasised the importance of the user-pay principle and that “any future negotiations should bear that principle in mind”.
The ANC in Gauteng has recently written an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa, asking him to scrap the controversial system.
It’s believed the e-toll system was one of the main reasons for the ANC’s poor performance in Gauteng during the local government elections in 2016.
Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage says he has detected a change in approach by Mboweni.
“On the e-tolls there has been a definite change in the approach. Last year Tito Mboweni had a hard approach that e-tolls are here to stay. That direction has changed. He spoke about finding a solution to this matter now. That is a whole new stance.
“We saw a very distinctive attitude change, which means that a decision to pull this failed scheme is going to be made and probably use the political angle nearer the time to the elections.”
During his State of the Province Address on Monday, Gauteng Premier David Makhura announced that the ANC in the province is in talks with President Cyril Ramaphosa to scrap etolls.
The ANC in Gauteng has been vocal in the fight against the system, promising voters that it would be scrapped before election day comes around.