Mbalula promises the absolute last final e-toll announcement

The South African government will “for sure” announce a solution to e-tolls in October, transport minister Fikile Mbalula said in a media briefing on Thursday.
“Between myself and the Minister of Finance [Enoch Godongwana], directed by the President of the Republic… this matter must come to Cabinet,” Mbalula stated.
After Cabinet has resolved on the issue, Godongwana will announce the government’s plan for e-tolls — either during or before his Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS).
“This one is for sure certain,” Mbalula said.
“We agreed even last week. Our teams are working on the issues that need to be worked on before we make a final decision.”
Mbalula also revealed that their departments are no longer considering raising the money to replace e-tolls through South Africa’s general fuel levy.
“There was a decision that was taken by Cabinet on the e-tolls which was taking us in the direction of the fuel levy,” Mbalula explained.
“The fuel levy story has become very messy over time and is no longer an option we can consider.”
South Africa has faced record fuel price hikes in recent months, and government responded by temporarily reducing the fuel levy by R1.50 — from R3.85 to R2.35.
This relief was set to expire at the beginning of June, but Godongwana announced an extension. He said the relief would be halved to R0.75 in July and scrapped in August.
However, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse has called for the relief to be extended again to avoid a fuel price hike of around R2.50 in July.
Mbalula acknowledged that he had made “a lot of promises and concessions” regarding e-tolls when he was “almost certain” a decision would be delivered.
“That is now last year when Tito Mboweni was still Minister of Finance,” he said.
His latest promise was in mid-May when he said an announcement on e-tolls was “imminent”.
Before that, he had promised an announcement by Godongwana’s budget speech in February, and before that, he had promised a final statement by end-May 2021.
“We are working on the matter,” Mbalula said.
“We are looking at various options in terms of e-tolls which we’ll finalise before the MTBPS of government. That will be around October.”