Cabinet yet to decide on e-tolls – Mbalula

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula says Finance Minister Tito Mboweni may have created the wrong impression about Gauteng’s e-tolls.

Mboweni told Parliament that the user-pay principle is here to stay and that Gauteng motorists need to start paying for e-tolls.

Briefing the media in Cape Town, Mbalula said government was considering a number of options before making an announcement in two weeks’ time.

The minister however says the user-pay principle underpins any service government renders to citizens.

He insists that Cabinet has not yet taken a decision on the future of e-tolls.

“”Whatever the minister would have said to you in the lockdown, he would have said that but Cabinet reflected on the matter of which he left before Cabinet concluded. So there has never been any decision that says we are taking this decision, there’s no confusion about it. So Cabinet is mandated, there’s no decision on the GFIP (Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project), that decision is coming.”

Meanwhile, Gauteng Premier, David Makhura says he’s confident that a solution is imminent on the e-toll impasse.

Makhura’s spokesperson Vuyo Mhaga says, “Options were presented and further work then required to be done. And we believe that the work that Gauteng government obviously brought to the table was a well-researched view and we’re quite hopeful and believe that the solution is quite imminent. And the matter will be put to rest quite soon.”

The system has been met with resistance by Gauteng residents.

Watch Minister of Transport, Fikile Mbalula’s media briefing below: