COSATU statement on proposed E Toll Regulations Amendments

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) notes the Department of Transport’s proposed amended 2015 regulations governing exemptions and toll tariffs for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project.

COSATU remains steadfastly opposed to the E Tolls. 

The proposed amended regulations will not resolve the fundamental problems with the E Tolls that have lead COSATU and society at large to reject them.

COSATU remains strongly opposed to E Tolls on the basis that they:

- Are a de facto privatisation of an essential public good;

- Gauteng’s freeways were built over many years with workers’ hard earned taxes and now workers are expected to pay to access them;

- The public was only asked to comment on the specifics of E Tolling after the decisions were made and contracts promised;

- Public participation showed that the public was overwhelmingly opposed to E Tolls and yet government still insisted upon pursuing it at all costs;

- There has been no transparency around the actual costs of the E Tolls, who received the contracts and the profits the contractors will make;

- The contract was handed to a foreign company in contrast to government’s commitment to support South African companies;

- It remains an unaffordable burden upon workers;

- The administrative costs and profits made far exceed what was needed to upgrade Gauteng’s freeways; and

- There is insufficient accessible, safe, reliable and affordable public transport available to offer commuters an alternative to the freeways.

E Tolls have failed miserably.  Commuters have refused to buy the E Tags and pay the E Tolls in their millions.  Tinkering with which vehicles may be exempt and what reductions in fares can be made does not address the fundamental problem.

COSATU remains and will remain opposed to E Tolls as it amounts to the naked privatisation of a publicly paid for essential public good.  No amount of adjusting regulations can change that fact. 

COSATU calls for the immediate scrapping of E Tolls and a commitment by government that no further such privatisation of essential public goods will take place.

Issued by Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliament Office, 29 September 2015