Pretoria - South Africans will have to wait a bit longer to know the future of Gauteng e-tolls, as Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana failed to make specific pronouncements on the controversial user-pay system in his Budget Speech delivered in Parliament yesterday.
Godongwana said his infrastructure investment laid the foundation for inclusive, sustainable growth, saying the government was addressing supply-side constraints and expanding access to basic services.
“Overall, the public sector is projected to spend R903 billion on infrastructure over the medium term. The largest portion of this, around R448bn, will be spent by state-owned companies, public entities and through public-private partnerships.
“These spending plans are mostly for strategic projects in the following sectors: Transport and logistics will spend an estimated R351.1bn, including for Sanral to improve the road infrastructure network.”
Reacting to the Godongwana’s failure to mention e-tolls in his Budget, Gauteng DA spokesperson for roads and transport, Fred Nel, said it was disappointing that he did not give details as to how the e-tolls debt would be settled.
“This was an ideal opportunity for him to give details on how the national government and the Gauteng government would settle the debt.
“An ideal solution would have been to utilise some of the planned infrastructure expenditure to settle the e-tolls debt.”
Wayne Duvenage of Outa conceded that Godongwana may have made an allocation in his Budget to settle the debt but questioned his failure to make the much-anticipated announcement.
Duvenage said: “It would appear that the government still finds itself confused and unprepared when it comes to resolving Sanral’s e-tolls debt and what still needs to happen to finalise the Gauteng e-tolls scheme’s closure.
“Why is the Gauteng provincial government being asked to settle any debt that the national authorities entered into in 2008 when the e-tolls scheme was approved? … Gauteng should not be footing the bill for Sanral’s gross inefficiencies and incompetence.”
Pretoria News