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Bikers Against Tolls is campaigning to encourage others to man up and support Outa, Cosatu and other anti-tolling groups' 'don't tag' call, says Fin24 user James Sleigh. He writes:
Kapsch TraffiCom is not a "Kaapse maatskapy", it is an offshore Austrian company that announced to its shareholders it will profit €50m per year out of South African motorists in Gauteng.
The ANC government subsidiary the SA National Roads Agency Ltd (Sanral) will enforce this by criminally prosecuting you if you don't pay up. This for the most inefficient collection system known to man, where 83% of the collection goes to the investor, the rest for admin fees and the few cents left to maintain our roads.
Are we now to become criminalised like outlaws if we drive on our own highways that have no alternative routes?
This all so that the government can rake in billions of rand a month in a double taxation? We have paid fuel levy taxes to the tune of R41.7bn per year; the government has spent a pitiful R7bn per year on the upkeep and upgrading of the roads.
However, the coffers need replenishing because the combined central and local government’s fruitless and wasteful expenditure exceeds R160bn this year alone.
Bring that into context: it’s the price of Medupi power station, or three arms deals, or five Soccer World Cups, or four million RDP homes, in one year.
Nazir Alli claimed on 702 Radio that we are law-abiding citizens and will do the right thing. Does he believe because something is signed into law it makes it good, respectful and justified? Like the Group Areas Act that was a law, as was the Natives Land Act of 1913?
I’m sure if I look into the unjust laws of Hendrik Verwoerd's government, there will be hundreds of laws that were passed that did not stand the pressure test of justice and fairness.
Vusi Mona, spokesperson and general spindoctor for Sanral, now gloats that if you don’t buy a tag and use our stolen and leased out freeways for profit, you will be liable to criminal prosecution and will get a criminal record.
Bullying fascist tactics are now the utterances coming out from Sanral's mouths. If you push someone, Mona, you had better be ready to get pushed back.
BAT (Bikers Against Tolls), a citizen's movement, will be pushing back. We as a group will not accept this bill, no matter who signs it. We will campaign to encourage others to man up and support the “Don’t Tag” call from Outa, Cosatu and other anti-urban tolling groups.
This bill is not for your benefit, will not service the roads and is designed to rake in cash to the government coffers by the billions. This is a WEALTH TAX. Nothing more, nothing less.
Transport Minister Dipuo Peters announced on SABC News that it's not fair that people in other provinces and towns pay for Gauteng's roads. That may sound like a convincing argument seen at face value, but we know the animal we are dealing with.
Sanral is currently looking to change the law so that our money can be used to assist in neighbouring provinces' road infrastructure. We will see the funds collected from Gauteng to upgrade roads in Polokwane, Limpopo, etc.
They offer no guarantee that the money collected will be used ONLY in Gauteng. As a matter of fact, they already use maintenance funds to provide education scholarships to non-road engineering students, social upliftment and other non-road maintenance and upgrade projects. Surely this isn’t their mandate?
Users must pay to drive on our already paid for roads, which our fuel levy was supposed to provide for. Government, past and present, has hijacked the fuel levy to support other projects, efficient, honourable or otherwise - and now hands out a budget to the departments to make do with what they can.
With 5 million employed taxpayers carrying the burden of 55 million people, the money pot is getting depleted, with no end in sight. Are the citizens really going to buy into this poor form of governance and capitulate? Run off and buy an e-Tag, because it’s too much bother to oppose this form of fascism?
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not inherited; it has to be fought for, protected. Handed on from one generation to the next to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children’s children what it was like once to be free in South Africa.
- Fin24
Kapsch TraffiCom is not a "Kaapse maatskapy", it is an offshore Austrian company that announced to its shareholders it will profit €50m per year out of South African motorists in Gauteng.
The ANC government subsidiary the SA National Roads Agency Ltd (Sanral) will enforce this by criminally prosecuting you if you don't pay up. This for the most inefficient collection system known to man, where 83% of the collection goes to the investor, the rest for admin fees and the few cents left to maintain our roads.
Are we now to become criminalised like outlaws if we drive on our own highways that have no alternative routes?
This all so that the government can rake in billions of rand a month in a double taxation? We have paid fuel levy taxes to the tune of R41.7bn per year; the government has spent a pitiful R7bn per year on the upkeep and upgrading of the roads.
However, the coffers need replenishing because the combined central and local government’s fruitless and wasteful expenditure exceeds R160bn this year alone.
Bring that into context: it’s the price of Medupi power station, or three arms deals, or five Soccer World Cups, or four million RDP homes, in one year.
Nazir Alli claimed on 702 Radio that we are law-abiding citizens and will do the right thing. Does he believe because something is signed into law it makes it good, respectful and justified? Like the Group Areas Act that was a law, as was the Natives Land Act of 1913?
I’m sure if I look into the unjust laws of Hendrik Verwoerd's government, there will be hundreds of laws that were passed that did not stand the pressure test of justice and fairness.
Vusi Mona, spokesperson and general spindoctor for Sanral, now gloats that if you don’t buy a tag and use our stolen and leased out freeways for profit, you will be liable to criminal prosecution and will get a criminal record.
Bullying fascist tactics are now the utterances coming out from Sanral's mouths. If you push someone, Mona, you had better be ready to get pushed back.
BAT (Bikers Against Tolls), a citizen's movement, will be pushing back. We as a group will not accept this bill, no matter who signs it. We will campaign to encourage others to man up and support the “Don’t Tag” call from Outa, Cosatu and other anti-urban tolling groups.
This bill is not for your benefit, will not service the roads and is designed to rake in cash to the government coffers by the billions. This is a WEALTH TAX. Nothing more, nothing less.
Transport Minister Dipuo Peters announced on SABC News that it's not fair that people in other provinces and towns pay for Gauteng's roads. That may sound like a convincing argument seen at face value, but we know the animal we are dealing with.
Sanral is currently looking to change the law so that our money can be used to assist in neighbouring provinces' road infrastructure. We will see the funds collected from Gauteng to upgrade roads in Polokwane, Limpopo, etc.
They offer no guarantee that the money collected will be used ONLY in Gauteng. As a matter of fact, they already use maintenance funds to provide education scholarships to non-road engineering students, social upliftment and other non-road maintenance and upgrade projects. Surely this isn’t their mandate?
Users must pay to drive on our already paid for roads, which our fuel levy was supposed to provide for. Government, past and present, has hijacked the fuel levy to support other projects, efficient, honourable or otherwise - and now hands out a budget to the departments to make do with what they can.
With 5 million employed taxpayers carrying the burden of 55 million people, the money pot is getting depleted, with no end in sight. Are the citizens really going to buy into this poor form of governance and capitulate? Run off and buy an e-Tag, because it’s too much bother to oppose this form of fascism?
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not inherited; it has to be fought for, protected. Handed on from one generation to the next to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children’s children what it was like once to be free in South Africa.
- Fin24
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