Gauteng Premier David Makhura largely side-stepped the controversial topic of e-tolls in his state of the province address on Tuesday (25 February), despite expectations that the issue would finally be addressed.<\/p>\n
The premier only mentioned e-tolls once near the end of his more than two-hour-long address, noting that President Cyril Ramaphosa has made a decision on the matter, and would soon make an announcement.<\/p>\n
“As the executive council, we made a strong and persuasive case to national government on the e-tolls.<\/p>\n
“I have been assured by president Cyril Ramaphosa that a lasting solution has been found and an announcement by the president is imminent.”<\/p>\n
Government has flip-flopped on the issue of e-tolls with the Gauteng government indicating that it supports the scrapping of the system, while Treasury has indicated that it can afford the debt repayments.<\/p>\n
At the end of 2019, finance minister Tito Mboweni said that the system cannot be scrapped<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>unless a replacement revenue source is found.<\/p>\n Mboweni said that financing the GFIP is done on a corporate finance basis and not a project finance basis.<\/p>\n This means that borrowing for toll roads is done on the basis that there is a revenue stream to finance the debt, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cA significant portion of the South African National Roads Agency\u2019s existing debt was to finance the upgrade of roads on GFIP and it requires a revenue stream to finance it, so e-tolls cannot be abolished without a revenue stream to finance existing commitments.\u201d<\/p>\n E-tolls were also included in a recent government gazette<\/a> <\/strong>focusing on toll pricing, indicating that the system may be here to stay.<\/p>\n Read Makhura’s full address below:<\/p>\n Gauteng Sopa 2020<\/a> by BusinessTech<\/a> on Scribd<\/p>\n