Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi will announce the fate of e-tolls during his State of the Province Address (SOPA) today, 19 February 2024.
The province set itself a deadline for proposing a “comprehensive plan” to national government on how it aims to settle its share of the e-toll debt by December 2023.
Now, Gauteng Finance MEC Jacob Mamabolo said that Lesufi will announce the finer details of this roadmap to the public at his SOPA this week.
“We welcome the announcement made by the Minister of Finance when he said government will absorb the [e-toll] debt with a split between Gauteng government and national government,” Mamabolo told Jacaranda FM earlier in February.
“We did say that we will approach national government with a plan to say how we are going to pay, and next week, the premier is going to make an announcement on this matter.”
Gauteng is responsible for paying 30% of the debt and interest obligations incurred by the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, which includes e-tolls, while national government is being held accountable for the remaining 70%.
The main roadblocks standing in the way of ending the controversial scheme are the absence of a binding agreement between the Gauteng and national governments on the province’s financial commitments to pay off its share of the debt, its contribution to the maintenance backlog, and the administrative costs associated with the recovery of toll payments from defaulting users, finance minister Enoch Godongwana revealed in an official parliamentary inquiry last year.
12% of Gauteng motorists still paying
E-tolls were supposed to be completely scrapped in Gauteng by December 2022 with several proposals tabled on how the province will be able to repurpose the gantries, but well over a year later, no action has been taken in this regard and the tolls continue billing motorists.
To this day, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abus (Outa) estimates that anywhere from 10-12% of Gauteng road users are still paying their accounts.
The majority of these compliant parties are private companies like car rental services that stand to benefit from the payment of their e-toll bills as they, in turn, charge customers for these expenses.
Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage said monthly e-toll tabs for car rental businesses are capped per vehicle, however, the companies don’t cap the fees that they charge short-term customers who rent their cars allowing them to pocket more money.
Additionally, they add “admin fees” on top of the customer’s e-toll bills to further boost profits.
He stated that if these organisations follow the lead of individual motorists and stop paying, the tolling scheme will be “switched off tomorrow.”
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