Phalatse vows to cut off power to e-toll gantries if she becomes Joburg mayor

The Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, Mpho Phalatse, is promising to cut off the electricity supply to the e-toll gantries if elected.

The party says it has been informed that the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) is currently in arrears with City Power.

Sanral is the custodian of the e-tolls system and all gantries across the province.

“City Power is currently supplying the gantries with electricity. In a normal circumstance, Sanral should be paying the bills for this service.

“But with Sanral in arrears, it means the City of Johannesburg is not receiving revenue for this service, and the cost to keep these gantries on is being piled [on]to the residents,” said Phalatse.

Should the DA be elected to govern Johannesburg, Phalatse’s plan includes switching off the power supply to e-toll gantries in areas such as William Nicol Drive and Rivonia.

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Phalatse said this would “effectively collapse the e-toll system in strategic nodes, based on non-payment by Sanral”.

“We cannot allow the residents of Johannesburg to suffer any further from a shortage of services, because the national government is failing to take responsibility and pay their bills,” she said.

Phalatse took a swipe at the incumbent mayor Mpho Moerane, who vowed to protect Johannesburg residents from rolling blackouts last week.

“Any mayor of a municipality has a responsibility to protect their residents, especially when it comes to their interests of basic service delivery. It is evident that a mayor like Mpho Moerane, who was caught out lying this past weekend about Johannesburg residents being protected from load shedding, is not in the business of being a responsible mayor.”

Sanral’s non-payment shortchanges City Power of much-needed revenue to fix ageing and broken-down infrastructure, she said

“With less revenue, it is the residents of Johannesburg who suffer outages that last up to weeks because City Power does not have enough funding to clear their own infrastructure backlog,” said Phalatse.

Despite some residents dutifully paying their rates and levies, there are constant power outages across the city.

“As mayor, I will have the responsibility to ensure that basic services are delivered, and all municipal funds are used responsibly,” promised Phalatse.

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