ANGELIQUE SERRAO AND DEON DE LANGE
ORDINARY vehicle users will be the “cash cows” for Gauteng’s new tolling system – and the poor won’t be exempt either because they will foot the bill for increased food costs.
The government bowed to political pressure from the taxi industry and the commuter bus sector yesterday and exempted them from proposed toll tariffs for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project.
However, motorcyclists, light and medium vehicle commuters and trucks will have to pay, albeit less than was proposed initially.
Cabinet spokesman Jimmy Manyi announced yesterday that the cabinet had approved a revised tariff structure after a announcement in February was met with outrage.
According to the new tariff structure, motorcyclists (Class A1) will pay an average of 24c/km; light vehicles (Category A2) 40c/km; medium vehicles (Category B) 100c/km; and “longer” vehicles (Category C) 200c/km. Taxis and commuter buses (excluding tour operators) will not have to pay to use the expanded freeway system.
The new tariff structure will use an e-tag, an electronic billing system that will automatically deduct funds from a pre-paid account when a registered vehicle passes through one of the gantries.
Deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin said yesterday that the government had revisited the tariff structure “after the public outcry” in February, and conceded that “perhaps the planning (for the introduction of toll fees) was not as good as it should have been”.
He said the government had “restructured” its R20 billion loan over a longer period to accommodate the announced tariff reductions.
Manyi described the new structure as a “victory for the people on the ground”, but Automobile Association spokesman Gary Ronald said the exclusion of public transport from the system would leave “the usual suspects” footing the bill.
“If the public rally together and stand firm in the face of tolling by not registering for e-tags, and flagrantly disregarding tolling costs and (the) consequential fines, will the authorities have the wherewithal to manage a disgruntled 5 million motorists?” he said.
The Department of Transport has not announced when the toll roads will come into effect, as the toll fees will first have to be gazetted.
One player that is celebrating the cabinet’s news is the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco).
Spokesman Thabisho Molelekwa said the taxi exemption had come after intense engagements with the minister of transport.
But news that taxis and buses will be exempt from toll fees has not pleased everyone.
Ronald said the fact that car users had to pay was a form of discrimination.
“It will leave a sour taste in the mouth for many people, because making some people pay and not others is not entirely fair,” Ronald said.
He said what was more concerning about the impact of the toll roads was that companies would be forced to raise their prices to cover costs and this would affect everybody.
The cabinet’s announcement has had little impact on how the South African Allied Transport and Allied Workers Union feels about the tolls.
Spokeswoman Reagoikanya Molopyane said they might still strike if the toll roads went ahead.
She said the tolls would hit truck drivers and small business hard and, to cover costs, businesses would start retrenching workers.
“This will have an impact on food prices,” she said.
DA MPL Neil Campbell said they welcomed the toll exemptions, but were worried that the fees would increase each year.
“We are still in the dark about the real costs of operating the e-tolling system, which is possibly as high as R14bn over eight years,” said Campbell.
Kallie Kriel, chief executive of Afrikaner civil rights group AfriForum, said it was outrageous that the burden to finance the toll roads now lay with ordinary motorists.
He said taxpayers were already overtaxed and toll fees would mean ordinary motorists were taxed fivefold.