COSATU rejects e-toll slander 

The Congress of South African Trade Unions is shocked by a statement from the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport which accuses COSATU (and the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance) of encouraging citizens of Gauteng not to abide by an Act of Parliament and thus defy the Constitution of the country.  

COSATU demands an immediate apology and retraction for this defamatory and groundless accusation.  

COSATU is indeed encouraging citizens not to register with Sanral and buy e-tags, because there is nothing in the Transport Laws and Related Matters Amendment Bill which says that it is a legal requirement to register or buy an e-tag.  It is an absolutely legal and legitimate form of protest against an unjust law. Nor is there any law to compel citizens to assist Sanral to collect the toll fees.  

We are not therefore encouraging the breaking of any law, still less defying the constitution. 

Many motorists may well, however, not pay the bills for e-tolling when these arrive from Sanral. That will be a decision all citizens will have to make. The government will not however be able to shift responsibility for this on to the shoulders of COSATU or OUTA. The blame will rest squarely with the government itself, which has chosen to try to implement a policy which they knew was rejected by the overwhelming majority of the people of Gauteng and which they knew was always going to impossible to administer. 

COSATU fully agrees with the Committee on the need to develop an integrated public transport model and welcomes the plans which it mentions in the statement. The call for such improvements has always been at the centre of the federation's campaign against e-tolling.  

The lack of such an integrated public transport system is the main reason why so many thousands of motorists have no alternative means of getting to and from work and making other essential journeys that by driving on the highways. That is why they bitterly resent have to pay twice for road improvements which they have already paid for though taxes and the fuel levy. 

We reject with contempt however the Committee's ludicrous suggestion that this programme of public transport infrastructure investment is jeopardised by COSATU and OUTA encouraging citizens not to buy e-tags.  

Our highways are a national asset, which provide a vital public service for all South Africans. That is why the federation totally rejects the ‘user-pays' principle. It is equivalent to saying that education should only be paid for by the parents who have children at school and that healthcare should only be paid for by the sick.  

The government is quite rightly moving away from such a policy in these areas, with the roll-out of free schools and the national health insurance scheme. There is therefore absolutely no justification for moving in the opposite direction when it comes to public transport. 

COSATU calls on the government to scrap this disastrous e-toll policy as soon as possible.

Statement issued by Patrick Craven, COSATU national spokesperson, October 16 2013

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