Sanral defends e-tolling
The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) continued to convince motorists to support e-tolling and buy tags amid fierce opposition against the system.
Sanral spokesperson Vusi Mona said e-tolling will benefit the country’s economy and will not have an impact on the poor.
“Research was done at the University of Cape Town’s School of Business to examine the impact e-tolls would have on road users. It showed that it would benefit the economy and also make road users’ lives easier,” he said.
Mona said the system will only impact on the upper and middle income groups, 82.83 percent of whom would only pay R100 a month.
“Only a fraction of users of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) will pay the maximum, capped at R450 for those who have registered,” he said.
Mona said the poor will not bear the brunt, even if “trucks delivering bread from Pretoria to Soweto or any other area use gantries, and goods companies decide to increase pricing costs due to the toll costs, it would be below 1 percent”.
He said e-tolling was the most economically viable way of funding the GFIP, and disputed Cosatu and the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance’s (Outa) view that supports funding through a fuel levy. “It would be unfair for people in other provinces and those who don’t use the highways to subsidise the e-tolled roads,” he added.
Mona denied that the e-toll money would go overseas once it’s operational.
Meanwhile, Outa will appeal the Pretoria High Court decision on e-tolling in September.
