You would risk getting assassinated by the taxi mafia if you create any competition, real or otherwise.
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[May 2013..Dec 2013] The Gauteng E-tolling Thread
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You would risk getting assassinated by the taxi mafia if you create any competition, real or otherwise.
Heisenborg
Honorary Master
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Are the taxi's all signed up not to be charged? I SERIOUSLY doubt that, so i SERIOUSLY doubt the gantries will be going live anytime soon. The sheer amount of non compliance they will get from taxi's alone will crash/flood the system
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Nearly impossible.
Incredibly difficult. I looked into this already. It sounds great, but is just not really viable, and they'd simply change the law to fill the loophole...
COSATU Press Statement
COSATU: E-tolls - the fight goes on!
27 September 2013
The Congress of South African Trade Unions has noted the signing of the Transport Laws and Related Matters Amendment Bill by President Zuma, which clears the path for the implementation of e-tolling.
This will not however change the federation`s determined opposition to this attempt to privatise our highways and start charging the people of Gauteng to travel on roads they have already paid for through taxes and the fuel levy.
The fight against e-tolling - and for efficient, reliable, affordable and safe public transport for all the people - has always been political rather than legal, and our campaign of mass action will now be raised to a higher level of intensity.
At the same time we wait with interest the outcome of the legal action being taken by OUTA in the Supreme Court of Appeal, which may yet see e-tolling declared unlawful.
Whatever the outcome of that case however, COSATU will continue with the campaign of marches and highly successful drive-slows on the highways. We shall continue to urge motorists not to register with Sanral or buy e-tags, and to make the system unworkable.
Public support keeps growing and we are certain that people power will finally convince the government to abandon a policy with is extremely unpopular, unfair and unworkable, for the following reasons:
1. Tolls will add to the burdens of workers and the poor, who will be forced to pay to travel on highways which were previously free of charge. It is a lie that only the middle class use our highways. Many low income earners use private cars to travel to work not through choice but because they have no reliable alternative. They are already burdened by rising fuel prices and electricity tariffs, and the tolls will be yet another blow.
2. It will not just affect the people of Gauteng; the government has now conceded that e-tolling will replace the existing toll-gates, and be used for future road projects throughout the country. Tolls will also put an indirect burden on the poor of the whole country, by adding to the cost of transporting goods, which will have an immediate effect on food inflation.
3. Tolls will perpetuate exclusion: `User-pays` means that you cannot use the best roads if you cannot afford to pay the tolls. Those without money will be barred from the best roads, and forced on to the potholed side roads, while those with the money glide along the highways in their fancy cars.
4. The `user-pays` principle is a thoroughly capitalist and elitist concept, totally at odds with the progressive and socialist belief that public services should be delivered on the basis of people`s needs and not the size of their bank balances. Taken to its logical conclusion `user-pays` would mean that only the sick would pay for medical services and only the parents of school-age children would pay for education.
5. To its credit, the government is moving in the opposite direction in those areas, with the extension of no-fee schools and the roll-out of the national health insurance system. Yet public roads are just as much a basic public service, which people use through necessity rather than choice, because our public transport system is expensive, unsafe and unreliable.
6. There is a genuine problem of congestion on our roads, but this will not be solved by forcing people to pay to use them and excluding those who cannot pay, but by steadily improving our public transport services, making them more reliable, accessible, affordable and safe, until they become the preferred way to travel, and motorists can safely leave their cars at home.
7. The introduction of a tolling system that uses the private sector to operate the tolls is a form of privatisation, turning what ought to be a publicly-funded essential service into a commodity. Even worse is that the contracts signed with the private companies operating the tolls remain secret. Evidence indicates that their revenues from the tolls will be enormous and that after the initial loans have been quickly paid off, the private operators will milk the public into the indefinite future.
8. The tolls will be ridiculously expensive to collect. According to Sanral`s own estimate, at least 17% of the money collected in tolls will simply be used to collect the money. So tolls are not only unfair but also a grossly inefficient way of raising the money for road improvements. If the government makes further cuts in tariffs, an even bigger portion of the revenue collected will ultimately find its way into the pockets of the private toll operators. Trying to collect all this money from four million motorists will be impossible to manage and will become unworkable.
9. COSATU has consistently argued that when additional revenues have to be raised by government, then this must be done through the tax system, rather than tolls which take no account of the drivers` ability to pay. Taxation is both fairer, since the more you earn the more you pay, and far easier to collect.
Stop the privatisation of our public highways!
Reject user-pays for basic public services! Don`t buy e-tags!
Don`t register will Sanral!
Make e-tolling unworkable!
Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Street
Braamfontein
2017
P.O.Box 1019
Johannesburg
2000
South Africa
Tel: +27 11 339-4911 or Direct: +27 10 219-1339
Mobile: +27 82 821 7456
E-Mail: [email protected]
COSATU: E-tolls - the fight goes on!
27 September 2013
The Congress of South African Trade Unions has noted the signing of the Transport Laws and Related Matters Amendment Bill by President Zuma, which clears the path for the implementation of e-tolling.
This will not however change the federation`s determined opposition to this attempt to privatise our highways and start charging the people of Gauteng to travel on roads they have already paid for through taxes and the fuel levy.
The fight against e-tolling - and for efficient, reliable, affordable and safe public transport for all the people - has always been political rather than legal, and our campaign of mass action will now be raised to a higher level of intensity.
At the same time we wait with interest the outcome of the legal action being taken by OUTA in the Supreme Court of Appeal, which may yet see e-tolling declared unlawful.
Whatever the outcome of that case however, COSATU will continue with the campaign of marches and highly successful drive-slows on the highways. We shall continue to urge motorists not to register with Sanral or buy e-tags, and to make the system unworkable.
Public support keeps growing and we are certain that people power will finally convince the government to abandon a policy with is extremely unpopular, unfair and unworkable, for the following reasons:
1. Tolls will add to the burdens of workers and the poor, who will be forced to pay to travel on highways which were previously free of charge. It is a lie that only the middle class use our highways. Many low income earners use private cars to travel to work not through choice but because they have no reliable alternative. They are already burdened by rising fuel prices and electricity tariffs, and the tolls will be yet another blow.
2. It will not just affect the people of Gauteng; the government has now conceded that e-tolling will replace the existing toll-gates, and be used for future road projects throughout the country. Tolls will also put an indirect burden on the poor of the whole country, by adding to the cost of transporting goods, which will have an immediate effect on food inflation.
3. Tolls will perpetuate exclusion: `User-pays` means that you cannot use the best roads if you cannot afford to pay the tolls. Those without money will be barred from the best roads, and forced on to the potholed side roads, while those with the money glide along the highways in their fancy cars.
4. The `user-pays` principle is a thoroughly capitalist and elitist concept, totally at odds with the progressive and socialist belief that public services should be delivered on the basis of people`s needs and not the size of their bank balances. Taken to its logical conclusion `user-pays` would mean that only the sick would pay for medical services and only the parents of school-age children would pay for education.
5. To its credit, the government is moving in the opposite direction in those areas, with the extension of no-fee schools and the roll-out of the national health insurance system. Yet public roads are just as much a basic public service, which people use through necessity rather than choice, because our public transport system is expensive, unsafe and unreliable.
6. There is a genuine problem of congestion on our roads, but this will not be solved by forcing people to pay to use them and excluding those who cannot pay, but by steadily improving our public transport services, making them more reliable, accessible, affordable and safe, until they become the preferred way to travel, and motorists can safely leave their cars at home.
7. The introduction of a tolling system that uses the private sector to operate the tolls is a form of privatisation, turning what ought to be a publicly-funded essential service into a commodity. Even worse is that the contracts signed with the private companies operating the tolls remain secret. Evidence indicates that their revenues from the tolls will be enormous and that after the initial loans have been quickly paid off, the private operators will milk the public into the indefinite future.
8. The tolls will be ridiculously expensive to collect. According to Sanral`s own estimate, at least 17% of the money collected in tolls will simply be used to collect the money. So tolls are not only unfair but also a grossly inefficient way of raising the money for road improvements. If the government makes further cuts in tariffs, an even bigger portion of the revenue collected will ultimately find its way into the pockets of the private toll operators. Trying to collect all this money from four million motorists will be impossible to manage and will become unworkable.
9. COSATU has consistently argued that when additional revenues have to be raised by government, then this must be done through the tax system, rather than tolls which take no account of the drivers` ability to pay. Taxation is both fairer, since the more you earn the more you pay, and far easier to collect.
Stop the privatisation of our public highways!
Reject user-pays for basic public services! Don`t buy e-tags!
Don`t register will Sanral!
Make e-tolling unworkable!
Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Street
Braamfontein
2017
P.O.Box 1019
Johannesburg
2000
South Africa
Tel: +27 11 339-4911 or Direct: +27 10 219-1339
Mobile: +27 82 821 7456
E-Mail: [email protected]
Cool E
Expert Member
Nice essay from them. But you must remember e-toll will be implemented after 2014 elections. So we still have time to save up.
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
E-toll law signing an act of cowardice: DA
President Jacob Zuma's signing into law legislation paving the way for e-tolling was an act of cowardice, the Democratic Alliance said on Friday.
"Our president chose to make this announcement far away from the people of this province. It was an act of cowardice for which we cannot forgive him," spokesman Mmusi Maimane said in a statement.
It would also rob Gauteng's people of their hard-earned money which should rather be used to put bread on the table, pay for school fees, go towards job creation, and service delivery.
Zuma enacted the Transport Laws and Related Matters Amendment Bill on Saturday.
The presidency made the announcement on Wednesday, while Zuma was in New York for the 69th session of the United Nations general assembly.
On the same day, Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Fritz Brand reserved judgment on whether the tolling of Gauteng's freeways should be reviewed.
The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) brought the appeal in its challenge against the SA National Roads Agency Limited, the transport minister, and the Treasury.
Zuma arrived back in South Africa on Thursday night, the presidency said.
Maimane said the enactment was a slap in the face to all who opposed e-tolls.
"And when I say all of us, I mean everybody. I am yet to meet anybody who supports e-tolling," he said.
"Where was our voice in this decision?"
In a democracy, the people should be heard and have a voice but government had silenced the people. E-tolls were never necessary and were never the best option to pay for road improvements in South Africa.
"We have said before, and today I say again, that the upgrade to Gauteng's freeways could have been paid for through other means," he said.
"And by doing so, we could have avoided spending billions and billions of rands on e-tolls."
The money spent on e-tolls would not be going back into the South African economy but instead to the Austrian company brought in to manage e-tolls.
Bloomberg reported in June that Kapsch TrafficCom, the Austrian maker of toll-road systems, said it would get an annual revenue boost of "significantly more" than Euro50 million (R664m) for eight years from the Gauteng project.
Source : Sapa /aw/hdw/jk/ks
Date : 27 Sep 2013 15:22
President Jacob Zuma's signing into law legislation paving the way for e-tolling was an act of cowardice, the Democratic Alliance said on Friday.
"Our president chose to make this announcement far away from the people of this province. It was an act of cowardice for which we cannot forgive him," spokesman Mmusi Maimane said in a statement.
It would also rob Gauteng's people of their hard-earned money which should rather be used to put bread on the table, pay for school fees, go towards job creation, and service delivery.
Zuma enacted the Transport Laws and Related Matters Amendment Bill on Saturday.
The presidency made the announcement on Wednesday, while Zuma was in New York for the 69th session of the United Nations general assembly.
On the same day, Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Fritz Brand reserved judgment on whether the tolling of Gauteng's freeways should be reviewed.
The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) brought the appeal in its challenge against the SA National Roads Agency Limited, the transport minister, and the Treasury.
Zuma arrived back in South Africa on Thursday night, the presidency said.
Maimane said the enactment was a slap in the face to all who opposed e-tolls.
"And when I say all of us, I mean everybody. I am yet to meet anybody who supports e-tolling," he said.
"Where was our voice in this decision?"
In a democracy, the people should be heard and have a voice but government had silenced the people. E-tolls were never necessary and were never the best option to pay for road improvements in South Africa.
"We have said before, and today I say again, that the upgrade to Gauteng's freeways could have been paid for through other means," he said.
"And by doing so, we could have avoided spending billions and billions of rands on e-tolls."
The money spent on e-tolls would not be going back into the South African economy but instead to the Austrian company brought in to manage e-tolls.
Bloomberg reported in June that Kapsch TrafficCom, the Austrian maker of toll-road systems, said it would get an annual revenue boost of "significantly more" than Euro50 million (R664m) for eight years from the Gauteng project.
Source : Sapa /aw/hdw/jk/ks
Date : 27 Sep 2013 15:22
I am pretty sure that he cannot sign a law into legislation while out of the country. Which would mean that he did so before he left. That means that the timing of the statement and action was incredibly important to them, which lends credence to the theory that he's attempting to subtly threaten the current sitting judges...
OMB
Mountain Man
you sound more like Julius by the day, who's your "we"?
Heisenborg
Honorary Master
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But Mac Maharaj said the timing was coincidence :erm:
Sinbad
Honorary Master
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LOL!
Further damning evidence that it's anything but...
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Was his mouth open when he said this?
Dead giveaway! When Mac Maharaj's mouth is open then you know 100% for sure that he is lying.
He also said Nelson Mandela is still in hospital.
Heisenborg
Honorary Master
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Saw it on the news last night, his lips were DEFINITELY flapping
Perhaps Zuma signing the bill into law is part of the ANC's bait-and-switch election strategy.
They announce a starting date etc. The public agitates against it. And they then withdraw e-tolls completely saying that they listened to the people!
If the DA's election strategy in Gauteng is largely based on the general opposition to e-tolls then its withdrawal close to election day will leave a large hole in its campaign, with little time to recover.
They announce a starting date etc. The public agitates against it. And they then withdraw e-tolls completely saying that they listened to the people!
If the DA's election strategy in Gauteng is largely based on the general opposition to e-tolls then its withdrawal close to election day will leave a large hole in its campaign, with little time to recover.
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
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