Government has no choice but to scrap e-tolls

Yet again, a ANC senior cadre has shouted his mouth off and then been brought back abruptly into line.

We shouldn’t be surprised that Gauteng transport MEC Jacob Mamabolo backtracked yesterday at way over the national speed limit on his confirmation that e-tolls are about to be scrapped.

A recording of his interview with SAFM is clear: he says the system will be scrapped.

Yet, despite that, his “firepool excuse” insistence is that interviewer Stephen Grootes “misinterpreted” him.

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula jumped in to repeat that an announcement was imminent – which would, in ducking-and-diving politician-speak, mean “neither confirm, nor deny” decision on the future of e-tolls was “imminent”.

READ MORE: Decision on e-tolls ‘imminent’, says MEC Mamabolo

Yet again, though, the public has been led a merry little dance by the people who rule us.

There can be no other option than to scrap e-tolls, which is the scene of one of the biggest communal acts of defiance since 1994, with only one in five paying.

Any decision to continue will surely provoke an even bigger revolt by ordinary people… ordinary people who have already had enough of the ANC’s looting and incompetence.

This is something the ANC can ill afford, given its own disunity. Worrying, though, is that logic is not our politicians’ strong suit.