Outa welcomes ANC Gauteng's move to scrap e-tolls

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has welcomed a resolution by the Gauteng ANC to scrap e-tolls.

Newly-elected ANC provincial deputy chairman Panyaza Lesufi on Monday said a resolution was taken at the ANC provincial conference in Johannesburg at the weekend to scrap e-tolls. He said a task team would be set up to ensure the decision become a reality.

Outa said etolls were “too much” of a financial burden on motorists and commuters.

“Outa has been opposing the e-toll scheme since 2012 and it appears that government has now realised the extent of the scheme's failure‚” the organisation said in a statement.

“Outa has previously written extensive reports on why the e-toll scheme would fail and recently delivered a comprehensive report to the presidency and the ministers of the economic cluster‚ showing that e-tolls have failed and it now costs Sanral [South African Road Agency] more to collect outstanding e-toll fees than it ultimately collects from motorists.

This report formed part of Outa’s proposals to the ministers on how to bring down the fuel price and the cost of transport in general.”

According to Outa‚ around 25 percent of motorists are paying their e-toll accounts.

“…during the 2017/18 financial year‚ Sanral and its agency Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) collected only R725-million against invoices issued for R2.7-billion.

“The administration costs related to collection for the same period were about R650-million‚ excluding any costs allocated to Sanral’s legal expenses or the costs of the summonses issued. Outa’s attorneys are currently defending almost 1 000 cases on behalf of Outa supporters‚” said the organisation.

Outa called on Gauteng premier David Makhura and the Gauteng legislature to go beyond talk and apply pressure on national government to scrap e-tolls and withdraw all pending legal action to bring an end to the “illegitimate scheme”.