E-tolls ‘will be history’ in Gauteng – Premier Lesufi

The Gauteng e-toll scheme is expected to be delinked from the end of March this year. This was announced by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi during the State of the Province Address (SOPA) on Monday evening. 'E-tolls are a system that was introduced in the province by national government on the basis that we wanted to improve our road network. We have now reached a stage where we all accept that the people of Gauteng have rejected e-tolls. 'We had a meeting with all affected parties. We held a meeting with the Minister of Finance [Enoch Godongwana]; we also held a meeting with the Minister of Transport [Sindisiwe Chikunga]. All of us now have reached an agreement that by the 31st of March this year, the formal process to switch off and de-link e-tolls will begin and e-tolls will be history in our province,' he said. Lesufi added that the Finance Minister will provide more detail. The scrapping of e-tolls has long been in the pipeline and Minister Godongwana, during the mini budget speech in October 2022, c alled for moving on from 'debates of previous years and find solutions to this challenge'. During that speech, the Minister explained that the Gauteng provincial government had agreed to 'contribute 30 percent to settling SANRAL's debt and interest obligations' related to the tolls. 'Gauteng will also cover the costs of maintaining the 201 kilometres and associated interchanges of the roads and any additional investment in road will be funded through either the existing electronic toll infrastructure or new toll plazas, or any other revenue source within their area of responsibility. 'Government proposes to make an initial allocation of R23.7 billion from the national fiscus, which will be disbursed on strict conditions,' the Minister said then. Source: South African Government News Agency