I received a call from SANRAL about a 18months ago wanting to guage my opinions on the new tolling system they would implement as a part of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP). When I asked what the fee they were considering was, they told me 50c per kilometre. It sounded steep at the time. Now, they have announced a 66c/km fee that will be implemented in June 2011.

There has been a growing media frenzy over this fee as people do the calculations of how much it will cost them to simply get around Gauteng in a day. I have no issue with tolling in general as I understand that our taxes do not subsidise road maintenance sufficiently. However, it seems to me that SANRAL is being less than honest about how they arrived at a figure of 66c/km. It sounds like one massive thumb-suck. At no point have they offered a justification of why 66c/km is vital or needed. Rather, my sense is that they want 50c/km but anticipate a massive public outcry and will at some point soon claim the moral high ground by announcing a fee reduction back down towards 50c/km.

I’m glad the public reaction is growing – and so it should even more. I myself have chosen to sign a petition at www.tollgatepetition.org.za to protest that is aiming to reduce the fee per kilometre as well as grow awareness of the injustice of the system.

Maybe SANRAL could use the extra cash to pay for better copy writers since the abysmal efforts in the first two lines of their Toll document i.e. “Traffic on Gauteng’s freeways are steadily increasing, thereby creating more congestion and stunting the growth of the economy. Peak hours are extended with approximately 15 minutes every year and roads are exceeding there life span.”

A caller phoned into Talk Radio 702 this morning and spoke of how it costs us 29c/km in tolls to use the freeway network (N3) down to Durban. Now, why can we not have a similar figure to maintain the Gauteng freeways?