E-Tolling
ok so for all you joburgers going to be affected by this i thought we could have a lil chat about it. in order for me to get to my college on mon, wed and fri i will be going through about 3 of these, to my boyfriend also 3 or 4, considering that im also unemployed despite having a national diploma means this is going to have a huge effect on my financials. for those who didnt read the newspaper yesterday SANRAL is now threatening to raise the fee from 30c to R1.75 for people who dont register in time for the launch on the 30th of this month. there was also talk about giving the e toll officials powers similar to those of the metro police.
what i would like to know is with the rise in petrol costs, where is the levy we all pay on our petrol going? surely that is already a large enough fund to use for road repairs without the e toll fees which are really going to affect people with low income and will definately have an enormous impact on the price of food and other consumables. the fact that most of the profits from e tolling are going overseas i dont see how this system is going to benefit Guateng. a large bakery that supplies bread to all major chains have told their drivers to find alternative routes for their deliveries as any e tolling cost will be paid for out of the drivers salary, they also want to make their salary subject to how many deliveries the drivers do so these poor men not only have to use alternative probably longer routes to do their deliveries which will decrease the amount of deliveries they can do in a day, if they use the tolled highways they will also lose some of their salary which they probably cant afford to lose. they are now literally stuck between a rock and a hard place. the bakery says it the only way they can keep the cost of bread low since there are now so many costs.
i know that SANRAL is trying to force us to use public transport but in all honesty we have atrotious public transport services and theres no way im climbing into a minibus taxi what with their steller driving manner and roadworthyness. so what is my other option, there is no rapid transit bus routes from where i stay to where im at college and private taxi are far too expensive to use.
seeing as the ones responsible for this e tolling proposal didnt do enough public awareness and public participation i dont see why we have to be responsible for the massive debt they have incured through their incompetance and short sightedness. as far as im concerned they should be the ones who pay off the debt out of their own pockets as i have no doubt that they would be benefiting in some financial way should this be implemented.
i havnt bought my e toll device nor have I registered, i will not be doing so until i have literally no other option but to comply. i would love to ask the people incharge how they expect me to pay for all of this when i am still living with my parents and have no prospect for employment anytime soon. i would also like to know why so much of the profits are being sent overseas and how they can think this will benefit our country. for once i completely agree with COSATU, i never thought i would use those words ;-)
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Originally Posted by RFSwanepoel
