President Jacob Zuma should withdraw his statement that South Africans should not think like Africans when it comes to e-tolls, DA spokesman Mmusi Maimane said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“The president was saying we must welcome e-tolls and pay up because new freeways have been built in Johannesburg. What the president doesn’t realise is Africa is actually developing at a faster pace than he suggests,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Many governments in African countries have adopted investor friendly policies that create jobs. They are not burdening citizens with double-taxation though an expensive e-tolling system.”<\/p>\n
Maimane was responding to a comment Zuma made while speaking at the Gauteng Manifesto Forum at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg on Monday.<\/p>\n
Zuma said there was still an opportunity to discuss the e-tolling system around Johannesburg if there was a need for clarification, EyeWitness News reported.<\/p>\n
According to the report, Zuma said the roads would be tolled and workers who could afford and maintain a car would be able to pay e-tolls, and the rest of the people could use public transport.<\/p>\n
“We can’t think like Africans, in Africa, generally. We are in Johannesburg, this is Johannesburg. It’s not some national road in Malawi.”<\/p>\n
Maimane said Zuma should apologise and withdraw these “insulting remarks” and said people were not backward when they said they could not afford e-tolls.<\/p>\n
He said Zuma’s claim that working class people could afford e-tolls was false because people could not afford to pay an extra R400 a month to travel between Soweto and Midrand.<\/p>\n
“Instead of insulting South Africans by saying we are backward when we oppose e-tolls, we should get rid of this backward and expensive tolling system,” he said.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed an Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) appeal against the implementation of e-tolls by the SA National Roads Agency Limited on October 9.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Outa announced that it would not continue its appeal against the ruling because of a lack of money.<\/p>\n
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