Much like the sound of Tell-tale Heart, the sound of the clock fast ticking against Fikile Mbalula must be growing louder. The transport minister on May 6 promised that “in the next two weeks” and “before we table our budget vote speech” South Africans would have an answer to the ongoing e-tolls saga.
Thursday, May 20, is exactly two weeks – and his budget vote speech is scheduled for Friday, May 21. The time is fast running out.
But did we really expect this promised deadline to be met? If we’re honest with ourselves, probably not. Because Mbalula has made a deadline promise about the controversial tolling system in the past and missed it. One of those promises was way back in October 2019, when he also promised the solution would be announced “in the next two weeks”. But there was no such announcement.
It’s a cliché, but it’s valid: Truly, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
The Gauteng government is adamant it wants the e-tolls scheme scrapped. But on Tuesday it voted against a DA proposal in the Gauteng legislature to force premier David Makhura to come up with a plan to scrap the controversial system within 30 days. The ANC – as it was always going to do for political reasons, if nothing else – voted against the proposal, which was not carried out.
But it was the response of Jacob Mamabolo, the MEC for public transport and roads infrastructure, that was most interesting.
“The premier and the provincial government have done everything to fast-track the process. The premier has led this house in doing everything that is required. For members to support a motion that calls on the premier to fast-track the process has outlived its usefulness,” he said.
If this is “fast tracking”, then one can only wonder how long it would have taken otherwise.
With an election coming up, one can only wonder whether the government is using e-tolls as a carrot to entice voters to mark their X for an ANC candidate. An evermore-disgruntled public would perhaps be more inclined to vote for the party that removed an axe that for eight years has been hanging over their heads.
Such a ploy, however, seems unlikely to succeed. Scrapped or not, any goodwill around e-tolls has been lost, particularly as the different spheres of government butt heads over it. Much of the ANC’s downward trajectory in Gauteng – and in many of the cities within the province’s borders – has been due to dissatisfaction over the tolling system.
South Africans have been in limbo for years over e-tolls, and need to know once and for all what is happening. Anything other than this is outright unfair and unacceptable. The time for promised deadlines is over.
