The national and Gauteng governments have yet to come to an agreement on how the costs of the Gauteng Motorway Improvement Project will be handled before electronic tolls are phased out.
The electronic toll system was meant to be phased out on December 31, 2022, but the Gauteng government says this has been delayed until the new year.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the provincial government explained that an agreement has not yet been reached with the National Treasury to support the deactivation of electronic tolls.
“…December 31, 2022 was set as the day to deactivate the electronic toll billing system. However, due to the need to finalize key components of the MOU (memorandum of understanding) between the national government and the provincial government, the matter will be finalized in the new year (2023),” the statement read.
The National Highways Agency SA has struggled to recover the costs of the Gauteng Motorway Improvement Project through electronic tolls and many motorists do not pay them. Electronic tolls have also faced opposition from civil society groups such as OUTA and the Cosatu labor federation. This ultimately brought Sanral’s debt burden to over R40 billion.
Last year, at the launch of the medium-term budget policy statement, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced that the government would assume 70% of Sanral’s debt, while the province would assume 30%.
READ | EXPLAINER | The life and death of electronic tolls
Soon after, Prime Minister Panyazi Lesufi said that electronic tolls would be removed after an agreement with the National Treasury is concluded by December 31.
The Gauteng government assured that the billing system would eventually be disabled.
“Prime Minister Panyaza Lesufi wishes to reassure Gauteng residents that there is no going back on the removal of electronic tolls,” the statement read.
A notice to deactivate electronic tolls must be published, and would be deactivated 14 days after the publication of the bulletin.
“The gazette will be published in early 2023, as agreed by the national Department of Transportation,” the statement read.
