Government clings to e-toll failure

“The gantries might be here to stay but the e-toll collections are not,” says Wayne Duvenage, OUTA's CEO. “And public resistance will not abate.”

The reality is that compliance is at an all-time low of 20%. It will be interesting to see how Government proposes to address this, as they have failed to do so for the past six years.

“Why is it so important for them to cling to a system that is the most expensive scheme in the world, which reeks of corruption from the road upgrade to the ETC contract, whose profits enrich a foreign company?” says Duvenage. The roads cost 100% more than they ought to have and the ETC toll collection contract was inflated by 60% above the tender.

"We believe Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula is due to make a major announcement on e-tolls on Thursday. If recent comments by the various ministers are anything to go by, we are not expecting him to cancel the scheme, despite the fact that in virtually all Government's engagements with civil society and business organisations they were called on to scrap it," says Duvenage.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) will not give in on the e-toll issue.

“The test case that has been developed over the past two years has been abandoned or placed on hold for the past eight months by SANRAL,” says Duvenage.