Early reports on the second day of e-tolling in South Africa’s Gauteng prrovince indicate that motorists are avoiding tolled highways and using alternative routes.
According to spokesman for the Johannesburg Metro Police, Edna Mamonyane, “Over and above, people are using alternative routes and they have been avoiding the N1, N3, and N12 since yesterday,”
She said traffic on the M1 North to the Johannesburg city centre was very congested too. Traffic lights not working added to the problems.
Mamonyane said she did not know how long motorists would avoid the tolled routes. “We cannot say if motorists will eventually get e-tags or not at all.”
According to transport minister, Dipuo Peters, “As of yesterday, we have slightly below 800 000 e-tags that have been committed.”
Despite appeals by columnists and activists not to pay or participate in the system, some members of the public were yesterday seen queuing up at shops to buy e-tags.
However, a professional woman who declined to be named, said that she was not going to pay. “I simply cannot afford it. I have to drive around to meetings with clients all day long and added to the price of petrol and insurance, it would cost me an absolute fortune if I had to make use of tolled roads.”
Columnist Manfred Delport, writing in Afrikaans on praag.co.za, appealed to motorists not to pay. As only 7% of traffic fines ever get paid, the percentage of e-tolls legaly recuperated for non-payment, would not be any higher, he argued.
Democratic Alliance Gauteng MPL Neil Campbell said the alternative routes were not viable.
“One of the roads on this list of alternatives is Witkoppen Road which already carries a huge volume of traffic and has a collapsing bridge.”
Prominent engineers had expressed serious concerns regarding motorists’ safety on the road but nothing had been done to fix the bridge.
“I hope no lives are lost before this process is complete as the blame for any loss of life will then rest squarely on the shoulders of [Gauteng roads and transport MEC [Ismail Vadi].”
Dipuo Peters claims that “the monthly toll costs to individual users are much over-estimated by critics of the project. Actual expected monthly tariffs payable by light motor vehicles show that about 83 percent will pay not more than R100 per month and 0.59 percent of motorists in the same vehicle class will reach the maximum monthly cap of R450. These numbers have been derived from the actual vehicle data collected by the toll system. Again, those who oppose the project are free to do so but even from opponents certain minimum standards are expected when it comes to engagement and debate.” – praag.org