South Africa is planning to scrap e-tolls in Gauteng, MEC for transport Jacob Mamabolo said.
“They are being scrapped,” Mamabolo said in an interview on Thursday on broadcaster SAfm. “The e-tolls are a thing of the past and we’re just waiting for that to be formalised.”
State-owned roads agency Sanral has faced resistance to e-tolls from motorists since their inception in 2013. Sanral’s debt to the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project may increase by two-thirds to about R67-billion if the tolls are cancelled, the Sunday Times reported last year.
The e-toll system has been a sticking point between the national government and the provincial authorities for years. Finance minister Tito Mboweni has insisted that the user-pay principle for Gauteng’s road upgrades will stay in place because national treasury can’t pick up Sanral’s debt bill.
The “national government will make an announcement on e-tolls and we are positive it will be favourable to our position, which is public knowledge”, Mamabolo said on Twitter. — Reported by Paul Richardson, (c) 2021 Bloomberg LP
