E-tolls gone for good, now to tackle crime and corruption – Lesufi

Following the Mid-Term Budget Speech by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana on Wednesday, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi said it’s time to move beyond e-tolls.

“We heard you, people of Gauteng,” Lesufi said on Twitter. “As per the announcement by Minister Godongwana, we have agreed to the formulation of a new revenue enhancement model.”

No more e-tolls

Gauteng’s Sanral debt

According to Lesufi, this model will exclude e-tolling. He added: “We are now ready to start a new life without Etolls in Gauteng.”

“This was not an easy decision, but necessary.”

This after Godongwana passed the buck back to the Gauteng provincial government with regards to repaying the province’s Sanral debt.

He said it was up to the province to pay off the debt while also maintaining Gauteng’s roads.

Next up: Crime and corruption

Lesufi said the next task on the agenda is to “tackle, harshly so, crime, corruption, lawlessness and vandalism in Gauteng”.

When told to also “deal with illegal dumping, illegal structures, littering, and grass cutting” along highways, Lesufi responded: “Wait till end November 2022”.

Lesufi added: “We will unleash the highest form of resources never heard of before. We will be in the sky, on the ground and in every neighbourhood tackling crime and lawlessness.”

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Alternative e-tolls mechanism

This ties in with Outa chief executive Wayne Duvenage telling The Citizen’s Lunga Simelane he believed Godongwana would announce a mechanism to allocate funds to establish a decision to not use e-tolling as a mechanism anymore”.

Details of the new model are yet to be finalised, but it’s a step up from Fikile Mbabula saying in November 2021 South Africans would pay for e-tolls, regardless of being scrapped or not.

To e-toll or not to e-toll

Mbabula said a decision would be announced during the February [2022] budget speech, adding that South Africans would still have to settle their e-toll accounts.

Then in March 2022, Mbalula reiterated that the transport department “has no intention of getting rid of e-tolls“.

Earlier this month, soon after Lesufi was appointed as Gauteng Premier, Outa said Lesufi’s plan to scrap e-tolls was nothing but “a farce” and “hot air”.

NOW READ: Scrapped or not, South Africans will pay for e-tolls, says Mbalula