Second is the City of Tshwane (351 644) and third Emfuleni Local Municipality (R127 685).
Manny de Freitas (MP), DA shadow minister of transport, said in a statement on Wednesday: “It is pure hypocrisy that government calls on citizens and businesses to buy e-tags and pay e-tolls, when governments themselves refuse to pay.”
De Freitas obtained the figures in answer to a DA parliamentary question about how much Gauteng municipalities owed SANRAL.
“The government is being blatantly unfair by expecting citizens to do something they aren’t prepared to. The DA has long held that e-tolls are double taxation and that the e-toll scheme is a job killing scheme. The people of Gauteng have spoken loud and clear in their rejection of e-tolls and their voices have been largely ignored. Now even ANC-governed municipalities have rejected e-tolls and refuse to pay them,” De Freitas stated.
“Not only are some municipalities not paying their e-toll bills but some have not even signed up for e-tags. Emfuleni has not registered a single one of its vehicles for e-tags.”
The Minister of Transport confirmed there were municipalities with outstanding invoices.
“However, since it is an outstanding invoice, it may still be in the process of being paid by the particular municipality and payment thereof is awaited. As the honourable member is aware, the new e-toll dispensation makes provision for all debtors to qualify for a 60 per cent discount. Thus these amounts will be reduced by 60 per cent,” the Minister said.
Ekurhuleni has two account with SANRAL, owing R1 796 445 and R41 938.38 respectively.
Search criteria used to pick up vehicles with e-tags could not find any Ekurhuleni vehicle registered on the system, the Minister said.
The City Times asked the Metro for comment, but received none at the time of publishing.
