As of Friday, April 12, motorists had been now not charged for passing via the metallic gantries dotted alongside sections of the province’s highways – information that the automobile rental business has welcomed.

“In compliance with the Authorities Gazette, Gauteng e-toll gantries will likely be deactivated at midnight on 11 April 2024, and Bluu Automotive Rental will subsequently stop to cost purchasers throughout this time,” Bluu Automotive Rental mentioned in an announcement final week. Bluu additionally confirmed that it’ll begin eradicating e-tags from its fleet of automobiles.

E-tolls have been a supply of rivalry since their implementation, and after initially opposing e-tolling via authorized motion, the Southern African Car Rental and Leasing Affiliation (Savrala) ultimately complied in 2013. 

“Previous to the e-toll launch, Savrala members financially supported the authorized opposition whereas concurrently tagging their fleet and passing the e-toll prices on to purchasers,” Sandile Ntseoane, GM of Savrala, advised Journey Information.

Travellers to the province who rented a automobile would beforehand be charged for e-tolls on their remaining bill. Though e-tolls have been scrapped, boomed tolls will proceed to function nationally, with charges collected as motorists move via plazas alongside the nation’s major routes.

Sanral debt and authorities funding

In accordance with Ntseoane, whereas Savrala is dedicated to driving the supply of a transport system that’s protected, dependable, and economically built-in, it believes that “any funding answer needs to be pushed by effectivity and a transparent technique.”

Each day Maverick has reported that the South African Nationwide Roads Company (Sanral) will hand over the administration of 201km of Gauteng’s tolled roads to the provincial authorities. Improvement and upkeep of the province’s roads are anticipated to value R3 billion every year, nevertheless, throughout a media briefing held on April 10, no particulars had been offered about how this might be funded. As well as, it was revealed in the course of the briefing that the Gauteng Freeway Enchancment Venture (GFIP) debt at present stood at R43 billion. 

Sanral famous that it could gather excellent e-toll money owed however that the roads company was nonetheless figuring out how to take action.

“We’re astounded by Minister Chikunga’s feedback that they’re nonetheless deliberating on the excellent e-toll debt matter,” mentioned Wayne Duvenage, Outa CEO. 

“Fairly frankly, in our opinion, there isn’t any excellent e-toll debt from motorists. That is additionally mirrored as such in Sanral’s monetary statements, whereby all previous e-toll money owed they couldn’t pursue had been written off years in the past. 

“With no additional choices for pursuing this debt, the majority of which has already prescribed, this notion of making an attempt to squeeze unpaid e-toll payments from the wallets of hundreds of thousands of motorists is a fallacy and phantasm that Sanral is just unable to simply accept.”