Opposition to e-tolls from within ANC
The DA says that Transport minister Dipuo Peters cannot ignore the growing opposition to e-tolls any longer.
Addressing an audience during a protest at the Department of Transport on Thursday (2 October), DA Parliamentary Leader Mmusi Maimane said: “There is now opposition from within your own party.”
He said that Gauteng Premier Makhura has made it clear when he said: “if needs be, I will stand with the people of Gauteng” against e-tolls.
“Today, we march to the National Department of Transport to tell Minister Dipuo Peters that she must listen to Gauteng Premier David Makhura.”
Eye Witness News reported that e-tolls will be on the agenda of an ANC elective conference in Pretoria on the weekend, to be attended by 400 branches.
It said that the Gauteng ANC provincial government officials called on the party to listen to residents on e-tolls.
The Gauteng ANC has previously been opposed to the project and this issue is expected to be high on the agenda at this weekend’s elective conference.
Deputy provincial secretary Boyce Maneli said: “As a party that listens to the people, we should be looking at the impact of e-tolls on the lives of people in Gauteng.”
“So as we engage in policy discussions, we should be able to discuss these issues as they affect our people and see what else needs to be done.”
The DA said that so overwhelming is this rejection that he had to set up a public participation Advisory Panel, after e-tolls had already been installed for 10 months.
“Yet minister Peters denies today that she will even consider the pleas of the people of Gauteng,” Maimane said.
“Our demand to the minister is that she legitimize the Gauteng Advisory Panel by agreeing to receive its findings.
“Our demand to the Minister is that she receive the findings and take them very seriously, because they will reflect the will of the people.”
The Gauteng Advisory Panel is set to present its findings in November.
“That panel’s report is not my report. It’s not the national Department of Transport’s report because we did not constitute a panel to review any policy. The user-pay principle is the policy in South Africa,” Peters said on Wednesday (1 October).
More on e-tolls
Users paying e-toll bills regularly: Sanral
E-toll services rated as “very poor”
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