Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi says vehicles are implicated in a high number of crimes and a decision has been taken for all citizens in the province to have panic buttons. Photos: The Citizen/Michel Bega and Neil McCartney
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.”
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.
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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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.
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
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