Hostile reception for Outa from ANC MPs

27 January 2016 - 02:42 By Babalo Ndenze

ANC MPs have slammed the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance for failing to provide alternatives to e-tolling and neglecting the interests of the poor. The MPs defended e-tolls at a meeting of the parliamentary portfolio committee on transport yesterday.MPs had a go at Outa chairman Wayne Duvenage, who presented a report to parliament in which the scrapping of e-tolling was called for.Outa had asked to be allowed to brief the portfolio committee on the consequences of planned e-toll regulatory amendments, toll collections and allegations of collusion in the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project by construction companies."Halt the e-tolls scheme now. It's not too late to stop," Duvenage told the committee."It is possible to negotiate exit strategies for the e-toll contracts," he said.ANC MP Patrick Sibande said Outa was encouraging people not to pay but also said that it was not opposed to the user-pays principle."That is contradiction number one."They say they are not opposing but they are instructing people not to pay."Give us a tangible alternative. Don't just criticise ... You said you're concerned about business, but you are not concerned about the poor," said Sibande.ANC MP Sibusiso Radebe also took a swipe at Duvenage."Those taxis that are exempted [from tolling] are used by black people - the poorest of the poor."Are we saying people should not subsidise those who are poor?"..

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