E-tolling 'cannot be undone' - lawyer

OrbitalDawn

OrbitalDawn

Ulysses Everett McGill
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Gauteng motorists were warned that e-tolling "cannot be undone" and the court application to halt the contentious scheme is of "no consequence".

This is what advocate David Unterhalter, representing the South African National Roads Agency, told the Pretoria High Court yesterday.

He added that the government had already decided that e-tolling would fund the multibillion-rand Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project and that this was a matter of policy.

"We are going to have tolling. Gauteng roads will be tolled to pay for upgrading. We have invested billions in huge infrastructure that must be paid for," he said.

He denounced the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance's argument that Sanral deliberately kept Gauteng motorists in the dark by issuing "sterile" notices in the inner pages of five newspapers as a "grand conspiracy".

He denied Outa's contention that the public was kept out of the loop, and that legislation was pushed through without scrutiny, saying these statements had no factual foundation.

"[Outa's] strategy is to avoid the user pays principle in the hope that the fiscus will pay [for the upgrading and construction]," he said.

Unterhalter said Outa represented people who could afford cars and insurance but now wanted part of the budget reserved for the poor to pay for the upgraded roads.

He said Sanral had long discussed the planned levies in public forums.

He said there had been widespread engagement with the public about the e-tolling scheme through a variety of media.

He said there were 132 news articles on the freeway improvement project between 2006 and this year alone .

He claimed that one would have to be a Martian or a person living in a bubble not to have noticed the massive upgrades that were being done on Johannesburg's freeways, particularly ahead of the World Cup.

He said that in October 2008, then minister of transport S'bu Ndebele mentioned in a speech that the construction and upgrading of Gauteng freeways would be funded through the user-pay principle.

He said the South African Vehicle Renting and Leasing Association, which supports Outa in the application, participated in Sanral's Question and Answer session in July 2007.

Unterhalter also dismissed Outa's submission that the e-tolling scheme was irrational and economically unsound, saying there was an R8 spin-off for every rand invested in the infrastructure and that 17c out of every R1 will be used for toll collection.

Though he did not supply a figure on what the toll collection would cost, Unterhalter said Outa's claim that tariff collection would see R30.5-billion wasted was inaccurate.

Advocate Vincent Maleka, for Minister of Transport Ben Martins, said Ndebele considered each and every statutory requirement before approving the e-tolling declaration.

He said Gauteng motorists should pay to use the roads as it was incomprehensible to expect someone from Limpopo to pay for roads in Gauteng.

The case continues today.
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Link.

Quite arrogant about this whole deal, aren't they? :erm:
 
I wish our goverment can be undone . Zimba is corrupt to the bone... and we are paying the price.
 
Thats funny, it hasn't started yet so no reason it can't be stopped and the mechanism changed.
 
I'm still amazed that goverment is pushing for this... all GP citizens are gainst it (or 95%)... WTF are they smoking...
 
I think COSATU have a different opinion on that, we'll see how much of an opinion on Friday
 
Uuuuuh, yes it can. Will see how you bill us once your stupid gantries got burnt!!
 
Tolling systems have already failed in far better countries than ours.
If people in Germany can cause a tolling system to fail, then we have a great chance!
This moron and his overlords are about to find out what the collective laziness and intransigence of the people of South Africa can accomplish!
We don't have to make it fail here, it will fail of it's own accord.
The entire tolling system here is a house of cards and will fall as soon as we flick one single card.
 
two things you can't do.
1. Break your finger off in your own Ahole.
2. NSFW
 
Type RSA said:
Uuuuuh, yes it can. Will see how you bill us once your stupid gantries got burnt!!
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Exactly.

Perhaps someone could locate this David Unterhalter's twitter or FB account information (if he has such a thing) so we can spam him.
 
"
He said Gauteng motorists should pay to use the roads as it was incomprehensible to expect someone from Limpopo to pay for roads in Gauteng."

By this logic I would like the BILLIONS of Gauteng tax rands spent in every other province promptly returned thanks...

"Though he did not supply a figure on what the toll collection would cost, Unterhalter said Outa's claim that tariff collection would see R30.5-billion wasted was inaccurate."

It's probably much much higher
 
I wonder what's happened to the petrol levy that's been used to pay for the highways since the sixties.
 
Qwikslver said:
I wonder what's happened to the petrol levy that's been used to pay for the highways since the sixties.
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g-power-bmw-x5-m-typhoon.jpg
 
Jladan said:
"Though he did not supply a figure on what the toll collection would cost, Unterhalter said Outa's claim that tariff collection would see R30.5-billion wasted was inaccurate."

It's probably much much higher
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How can the court take this guy seriously? He's arguing like a science denier. Everything is just "you're wrong lololololo", without any counter-arguments, evidence or even stating his position. Why has he not been laughed out of court yet?
 
Qwikslver said:
I wonder what's happened to the petrol levy that's been used to pay for the highways since the sixties.
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it's been absorbed by the fiscus and used for other priorities such as health (fukked), education (fukked) and RDP housing (dare I say it) etc.

this was explained by Treasury during the recent public [-]you will do what we tell you[/-] information sessions
 
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