The answer provided by the Minister of Transport, Dr Blade Nzimande, to a parliamentary question confirms that summonses will no longer be issued for the non payment of Gauteng e-toll accounts.
In his response to written questions on the matter, the Minister stated that the summonses that have already been issued will be followed through and that changes will be made to claim outstanding funds.
On the one hand, the FF Plus considers the information encouraging seeing as road users will be relieved of the burden of further summonses, but on the other hand, the party considers proceeding with the legal processes of previously issued summonses to be a waste of time and money.
The Minister indicated that up to August 2018, R4,6 million had already been spent on legal fees relating to fines.
Given the fact that road users who received summonses have good legal ground to defend their case, the court cases will most probably be long and drawn out and bring about more unnecessary expenses. That money would be much better spent on repairing roads.
In his response, the Minister also indicated both the projected monthly income as well as the actual monthly income generated by the e-toll system since its inception. It is clear that the projected income did not realise most of the time and apart from a few exceptions, the actual income was less than R80 million per month.
This is also a clear indication that the system lacks legitimacy and that e-toll payments are not made as the government had expected.
Further proof that the system lacks legitimacy is the figures on activated and deactivated e-discs. During the period from December 2013 to October 2018, a total of 2 363 514 discs were activated, but then a total of 1 166 570 were deactivated and that makes up nearly 50% of the discs initially activated.
Seeing as it is mostly businesses that make use of e-discs, these figures are an indication of how even businesses boycott the e-toll system.
The ANC must realise and accept that the e-toll system failed. Payments are bound dry up until there is but a small stream of income and ultimately, the system will collapse. It is only a matter of time.
The fact that the ANC has been defending the e-toll system will hurt the party at the polls in Gauteng during the 2019 elections. The ANC will surely not get the majority vote in this province.
And in time, the FF Plus will reveal its plans to do away with the e-toll system once and for all.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Adv Anton Alberts on FF Plus
South Africa Today – South Africa News
