The E-Tolls are indeed unpatriotic!

I recently drove past one of our now-famous billboards which most people love, “E-Tolls. Proudly bought to you by the ANC.”

I couldn’t help but feel the rage that Gauteng motorists experience when reading the billboard.

It also reminded me of the reaction from the Transport Minister herself, Dipuo Peters, who described the billboards as “unpatriotic”.

I want to thank the Minister for being honest; at last a government member who is honest about the e-toll project!

Indeed e-tolls are very unpatriotic. Particularly as most of the money made from this project will be flying out to Austria, while the South African taxpayer gets fleeced daily.

Yet, the Minister is supporting and defending this unpatriotic project!

To make matters worse, the Government Gazette on e-toll tariffs indicates 82.7 per cent of road-users (Class A2) will pay a maximum of R100 per month if they are registered as e-tag users.

But, if you use Sanral’s own schematic on the toll gantries and then connect this to the gazetted tariffs to be paid by registered e-tag users during peak periods, the DA has estimated costs on several routes around Gauteng and established that these will, in fact, be much higher.

How then can Sanral say that more than 80 per cent of users carrying an e-tag will pay a maximum of R100 per month?

Sanral has resorted to deceiving South Africans about the system itself, as well as what it will cost the public, irrespective whether one is a registered user or not.

The Minister needs to decide if she will continue supporting this system, which few support, or whether she still thinks e-tolls are unpatriotic, in which case she needs to halt it now!

Now, if only we could get the President to realise how unpatriotic and embarrassing his “road in Malawi” comments were, when addressing this issue, not only to South Africans, but to Malawians and, indeed, the whole of Africa.