President Ramaphosa mum on e-Tolls that continue to be a burden to Gauteng residents

11 February 2022

The DA and residents in Gauteng are disappointed that President Cyril Ramaphosa did not mention the scrapping of e-Tolls in the province during his State of the Nation Address last night.

In light of his economic growth plans he missed an opportunity to go the whole hog and free Gauteng's economy all the way. Gauteng makes the largest contribution to our country's economy and abolishing the burden of e-tolls could have benefitted the country as a whole.

This is an indictment on the residents of our province who are unable to afford to pay for a system that was imposed on them without any due process being followed.

This system is negatively impacting our already struggling economy as many small businesses were unable to afford to pay the e-Tolling fee each time their vehicles delivering goods passed a e-Toll gantry.

It is clear that the decision on e-Tolls has once again been kicked down the road which is not surprising at all.

As the DA we will continue to fight for the rights of our residents in the province, when we see that a new system that is intended to uplift our infrastructure is unfairly imposed on our residents.

The time for using e-Tolls as a political football and voting fodder is over and we demand that the ANC-led government makes a firm decision on this system for once and for all.

Issued by Fred Nel, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Roads and Transport, 11 February 2022