Paying for this?

I have done so because firstly, while I am opposed to the manner in which they were introduced and the high costs of these tolls, the idea of tolls does not send me into the blind rage it seems to bring out in some of my friends.
There are cons, and pros, about this system which is in no way unique to South Africa.
Countries across the world – some with higher petrol prices and general taxes than ours – have tolled highways and just like us, their citizens are charged to use the highways.
Secondly, aside from finding alternate routes, there is very little to be done in the short term.
The government has found a way to rob us daily and they aren’t about to give up all this extra lovely lolly.
Not without a very long, protracted fight in which there seems little chance of us actually winning and having the system abolished.
This column is, however, not about Gauteng’s e-tolls but about the other national road tolls we, as South Africans, have always paid (without too much complaint) when travelling to other parts of the country.
On a recent road trip to the Eastern Cape to visit Grahamstown, I found myself paying in excess of R150 in tolls each way – without the benefit of free-flowing, well maintained roads.
Twenty years ago I embarked on my first trip to this wonderful part of the country and, for the following five years made the trip between Grahamstown and the East Rand at least four times a year, travelling to and from university.
During all these trips, my trusty 1300 Madza 323 (circa 1985 and handed down from my mother) made the trip laden with myself, three friends and all the paraphernalia associated with varsity – books, computers, clothes etc – in a maximum of 10 and a half.
The journey was only this lengthy owing to the fact that my trusty stead could go no faster than 60km/h up the dreaded Hell’s Pass and other particularly nasty, steep mountain passes of which there are quite a few on the trip.
Year after year, we patiently puttered up these passes knowing that the journey would be a mere 10 and a half no more, no less, and soon we would arrive.
Remembering the trouble my car had with these passes in the days of my youth, I was happy to have a newer and more powerful car as I set off on the journey last year to visit my alma mater – sure that the trip would be far more pleasant as it was bound to be much quicker in a car which is able to soar around these passes, comfortably hitting the 100km/h mark.
However, the 1 017km was (last year), and still is, paved with roadworks and long waits at the ever-present stop-and-go, something which has become the norm rather than the exception along this tract of road.
Eight of these stop-and-goes results in what should be no more than a 10-hour journey morphing into one that takes 12 hours – in 35 degree heat.
Having just returned from Grahamstown – I am not impressed!
Last year I shrugged and accepted that the roads need to be repaired and took the delays in my stride.
This year I am not as accommodating of the disgusting state our national roads are in.
Aside from the fact that what should be four-lane highways are now one lane cobble tracks with both directions of traffic sharing one-lane hardly wide enough for a donkey cart, there is sometimes 30km of cobble followed by a mere 8km of highway before you are once again stopped for another aeon.
Add to this the deluge of huge trucks making use of these roads to transport goods between Gauteng and the Eastern Cape, and what you are left with are irate motorists stuck going 3km/h up Hell’s Pass.
The stop-and-goes are in exactly the same place and it seems that workers have not made a single centimetre’s worth of repairs since last January.
I am not sure what they have been doing for the past 13 months, but they certainly have not been fixing these roads!
The point of this rant is this (as unpopular as this sentiment may be): at least we have well-surfaced, multilane highways which we do not have to share with oncoming traffic to show for our toll fees.
The same can certainly not be said for the rest of the country where tolls are still being charged for mangled, unusable roads.