The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is concerned as to how the e-toll debt will be repaid. Government has officially scrapped e-tolls, according to a proclamation in the Government Gazette published on Thursday.
However, the the Gauteng provincial government has indicated that it would have to seek out loans will from private lenders to repay the almost R13-billion e-toll debt owed by province to SANRAL.
DA Gauteng spokesperson on Transport Fred Nel says the financial burden should not be pushed down to the tax payers who were not properly consulted in the first instance.
“The DA welcomes the scrapping of e-tolls. This is the fight that we have been fighting for many many years. We also wanna thank civil society and residents of Gauteng in taking hands with us during this fight. We are however, still concerned about how the e-tolls outstanding debt will be funded. We will be asking questions about this and ensuring that the debt does not put extra burden on the tax payers of Gauteng.”
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ActionSA meanwhile, says it is tragic that it has taken so long for e-tolls to be scrapped.
Action SA’s Gauteng chairperson, Funzela Ngobeni explains.
“It is tragic that it took this long for it to be scrapped. However, many questions still remain. Years passed since the premier inaugural state of the province address where he promised to begin the process of delinking and switching off e-tolls. We reject any efforts by the government to place the financial burden on Gauteng motorists who were not sufficiently engaged prior to the e-tolls system installation.”
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