The DA is seeking to have e-tolling and its effects since implementation be reviewed in Parliament.
The party plans to ask the transport portfolio committee to undertake a full review of e-tolling in the coming days, DA’s parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane said.
“We contend because e-tolls were introduced by enabling legislation passed by the National Assembly,” he said. ‘It’s the responsibility of Parliament to monitor the impact of its implementation and whether its aims an objectives have been met.”
Additionally, the party intended to draft a Private Members Bill to Parliament, which would include a referendum wherein South Africans can vote on the implementation of e-tolls.
According to Maimane, the bill would limit the transport minister and South African National Roads Agency Limited’s power to implement tolls by subjecting the decision to a public consultation.
The bill would further enforce that the comments of the premier of the province in which the proposed toll roads were located were taken into account, and dictate that the minister and the roads agency were obliged to identify and designate an alternative route to every road sought to be declared a toll road.
Although Maimane welcomed Gauteng Premier David Makhura’s announcement that e-tolling would be reviewed, he noted that if the ANC was serious about addressing e-tolling, transport minister Dipuo Peters should welcome the review.
However, Maimane said the legislation governing e-tolls was a national legislation and therefore the law around this particular issue must be dealt with in the National Assembly.
Shadow Minister for Transport, Manny de Freitas believed that Makhura’s move to establish a panel to review e-tolling was politically driven following the party’s significant loss of support in the province, but said the DA would support any solutions found through the panel as it would benefit the public.
The ultimate goal would be to scrap e-tolling completely, however, de Freitas noted that there were existing debts that needed to be paid and other more cost effective means of funding needed to be established.
Maimane said funding for road construction and infrastructure development should come from the fuel levy, which would negate the further need for e-tolls.
