The ANC called on motorists on Tuesday to register for their e-toll accounts to take advantage of the benefits offered to registered users. The benefits of being registered included discounted rates for frequent users, spokesman Jackson Mthembu said.
“The ANC further calls for restraint from all members of society against mobilising for lawlessness as it relates to the e-tolls,” he said.
Extensive consultations had taken place around the funding model of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project and concerted efforts were made to resolve the mutual problems identified.
Mthembu said the ANC was grateful to the almost 1m South Africans who had already bought their e-tags and committed themselves to work with government to further improve world-class and sophisticated infrastructure.
“Infrastructure that all of us are in agreement has lightened the burden of travelling time and road safety, providing much needed time to motorists to do the things they would rather do than sitting in traffic.”
He said what remained a point of disagreement was not that the roads had been improved, but rather the funding model that had been adopted.
The ANC was aware of and appreciated the dissatisfaction of many road users with regard to the implementation of e-tolls, he said.
“Part of this dissatisfaction arises from the lack of an integrated, safe and reliable public transport system, which would allow motorist options when confronted with the introduction of the user pay principle as in the case of the tolled roads.”
He said government had also established significant discounts for registered users and made commitments to cap the costs payable by a user per month providing an opportunity for planning and certainty.
“The [Gauteng] provincial government has also built and upgraded more than 200km of alternative non-tolled roads.”
Meanwhile, lawyers representing Justice Project South Africa (JPSA) have labelled responses they got from Sanral’s legal team relating to e-tolls as arrogant and evasive.
“Given the level of controversy surrounding e-tolling, our client finds your client’s response to the reasonable and legitimate queries raised by our client … surprisingly arrogant and evasive,” the lawyers said in a letter.
The letter followed roads agency Sanral’s threats of legal action following a request for clarification on e-toll prosecutions.
After sending the letter, JPSA received a response before noon on Friday from Werksmans Attorneys, acting on behalf of Sanral.
They were told among other things that Sanral was not in a position to clarify matters reported by members of the media, where such clarity should be sought from the reporters concerned.
JPSA said the answer was not satisfactory. The letter stated that the Government Gazettes which they were referred to did not deal with the questions they had asked.
“The Government Gazette of 9 October 2013, and/or gazettes prior to, or proceeding that date, do not support the statements allegedly made by the representatives of your client, as reported in various media.
“It is in any event, unreasonable, in our client’s view, for your client to expect our client or members of the public to trawl through Government Gazettes to try to determine the answers to the queries raised in our letter of 26 November 2013.” — Sapa