Johannesburg - Gauteng motorists will know on Friday how
e-tolling will be implemented, the inter-ministerial committee on the Gauteng
freeway improvement project (GFIP) said.
"The committee will be making an announcement on
Friday, on how the e-tolls will be implemented," spokesperson Thabo Masebe
said on Wednesday.
"The committee has been meeting with various
stakeholders since last week and we are concluding discussions this week."
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe chairs the IMC.
Masebe added it was possible to have a solution that
satisfied everyone as the government and relevant parties were much closer
after the consultations than they were earlier this year. There was general
agreement on the "users-pay" principle, Masebe said.
"It was agreed that the e-toll system could be used to
solve problems of congestion on the highways and to raise funds for
improvement."
Religious leaders from the SA Council of Churches, the
National Interfaith Council of SA and the National Religious Association for
Social Development met the IMC on Tuesday.
The religious leaders said they were satisfied that the
committee had taken their concerns into consideration.
Two weeks ago, the Constitutional Court ruled that an
interim order granted by the High Court in Pretoria in April, which put the
GFIP on hold, be set aside. It concluded that the high court had not considered
the separation of powers between it and the executive.
Other parties had expressed their opposition to the
e-tolling system. In response to the Constitutional Court ruling, Congress of
SA Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said: "We are going to
resist it with every power we have."
* Follow
Fin24 on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest.