Will we finally see e-tolls scrapped this week?

While South Africa awaits the fate of e-tolls this week, the hope is that the controversial system will be scrapped. As all eyes will be on Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana on Wednesday, when he tables the medium-term budget policy statement in parliament.

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said this would be the setting for the e-toll decision to be made public.

Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) chief executive Wayne Duvenage said he believed Godongwana would announce a mechanism to allocate funds to establish a decision to not use e-tolling as a mechanism anymore.

The policy statement was projected to show a revenue overrun, with substantial tax receipts accrued earlier in the year aiding further fiscal consolidation.

Duvenage said the decision to end the “e-toll scheme” was one Cabinet should have made years ago and instead adopted the alternatives civil society presented as far back as 2011.

“It remains to be seen, which will be very interesting,” he said. “They have been talking about this for a very long time.

“We have been promised a decision on the future of e-tolls and the GFIP [Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project] funding since July 2019.

“Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has repeatedly announced a decision was imminent, with his latest promise that a decision will be forthcoming in the medium-term budget policy statement on 26 October”.

Duvenage said they might try to squeeze an increase in the fuel levy, which would be wrong.

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“They are desperate for money, so who knows,” he said.

While the country waited on the official dissolution of the e-toll scheme, Cabinet had effectively acknowledged its failure through its allocation to South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) of R22.4 billion since 2014 for the GFIP.

“Plus, another allocation in July of R3.74 billion, with a likely addition of another R1.8 billion before the end of this year,” he said.

The extra allocation in 2022- 23 is listed in the Sanral Integrated Report 2022 under events after the reporting period.

“The report also notes that e-toll compliance is at 17.65% and the scheme has run up R9.7 billion in uncollectable debt from motorists who have refused to pay their e-toll bills since December 2013.”

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