The tolling of South Africa’s roads remains government’s preferred method of paying for road infrastructure and is not going to disappear despite recent developments in the Gauteng tolling saga. This was the message from Marissa Moore, National Treasury’s acting chief director of public finance, urban development and infrastructure, to members of the Road Freight Association (RFA) recently. The RFA’s views on tolling are well documented – they are fundamentally opposed to the way that tolls are being collected and have publicly called for a more transparent process saying there are flaws in the GFIP tolling method. While the tolling of Gauteng’s roads has been placed on hold indefinitely after the government was taken to court earlier this year and an interdict granted to allow for the review of the entire tolling process, Moore said government had in 1996 through the White Paper on National Transport Policy accepted road tolling as a principle. “Cabinet continues to support tolls as a usercharge principle for road infrastructure investment. This is government policy,” she said. “And this is a principle designed around the user benefiting for that which the user pays. This is a major aspect that has been missing from the public debate in relation to what is happening around tolls in Gauteng.” Moore said toll systems were used across the world. “In all the major urban centres around the world they use a user-pay method to address congestion and maintenance. South Africa is not doing anything different.”
