BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY MEDIA FOR AFRICA

Gauteng e-tolls given the green light

Gauteng e-tolls given the green light
Simnikiwe Mzekandaba
By Simnikiwe Mzekandaba, IT in government editor
13 Dec 2012

A South African high court has ruled in favour of government rolling out electronic tolls (e-tolls) on the Gauteng province’s highways early next year.

Civil society group the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) failed to convince Judge Louis Vorster of the South Gauteng High Court that government’s notification to the public about e-tolls was inadequate.

The judge further dismissed Outa’s allegations that the government’s public participation process on the matter was flawed.

The decision follows a ruling in September from South Africa’s highest judicial body, the Constitutional Court, which said that the country’s government can start implementing the project.

Government has been planning to implement, through the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL), its e-tolling project on the highways of Gauteng province, which has cities such as Johannesburg and Pretoria.

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The project is aimed at raising funds to pay back debts owed as a result of upgrading the province's highways.

ITWeb reported earlier this year that costs of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) increased significantly to almost $10 billion.

As a result, the government expects commuters wanting to travel on the province's highways to help pay back this cost by buying an 'e-tag' device, which is fitted on the inside of the windscreen of a vehicle. Drivers can then top-up the e-tags via prepaid means or credit cards, and amounts of money are deducted from the device whenever a commuter travels under an e-toll gantry.

Toll rates are calculated based upon the distances a commuter travels on the highways.

And following the court rulings, e-tolls could be set in motion as soon as February.

"In my view the application cannot succeed," Vorster told the court.

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