E-tolls: The people have spoken

Short of a full defeat in an election, the ANC has been delivered its biggest no-confidence statement yet by the people who took part in the biggest consumer boycott in South African history by refusing to pay e-tolls in Gauteng.

It was a painful, nine-year lesson in the consequences of political arrogance, lack of consultation and riding roughshod over your own citizens.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said yesterday e-tolls were “closed” as a method of funding the hugely overpriced 201km Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP). Government will pick up 70% of the debt incurred by the SA National Roads Agency and the Gauteng government will pick up the remaining 30%.

Tolls have not been totally rejected – but if they are used, it will only be for maintenance or any new projects, Godongwana said.

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The government’s big mistake from the beginning was assuming motorists would lie down and accept their abuse of the “user pays” principle, which has been applied worldwide to tollroad projects. Elsewhere, however, it was used correctly and fairly to fund building of new roads and not to merely revamp existing ones which have already been paid for by taxpayers.

GFIP funding was always going to be a tax, no matter the attempts at rationalisations by bureaucrats and politicians.

And the people said, unequivocally: “No!” The perversion of the system of road tolling began with the last National Party government, which was a good friend of the construction industry. In the beginning, toll roads were outside major cities and allowed people the choice of an alternative route. Eventually, that loophole was closed and the tolling of existing urban roads followed.

Public-private partnerships can help provide much-needed infrastructure, but they need to be carefully planned and ethically executed. The lesson from e-tolls, though, is: listen to the people.

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