Johannesburg - E-tolling was intended to help reduce congestion on
Gauteng's roads, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said in Johannesburg
on Friday.
"The Gauteng freeway improvement project was conceived
as part of a strategy to solve the problem of congestion on the Gauteng
highways," he said at a meeting between Business Unity SA and the
inter-ministerial committee on the Gauteng freeway project.
"Having considered various options for decongestion...
government came to the conclusion that the user-pay model was the most
equitable.
"So, as we discuss various funding options, let us not lose sight of the fact that in the end our highways must be decongested."
Motlanthe chairs the committee set up to deal with
problems on Gauteng freeways, after a court interdict halted e-tolling
pending a full judicial review. The government has since approached the
Constitutional Court to appeal against the interdict.
Motlanthe said peak times on the highways extended by
15 minutes every year, and the congestion had a negative impact on the
economy.
Most of the roads had reached the end of their design capacity.