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Cape Town - The DA will appeal in writing to President Jacob Zuma not to sign the controversial e-tolling bill into law.
"Furthermore, I will request that he establish a full-scale investigation into what alternatives exist to the e-tolling model, before the e-tolling programme is implemented and enforced," Democratic Alliance MP Ian Ollis said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Transport and Related Matters Amendment Bill was passed by the National Council of Provinces last week.
The measure amends the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) Act, and, once signed into law by Zuma, will allow Transport Minister Ben Martins to make regulations regarding e-tolling.
Ollis said a recent reply to a parliamentary question indicated that "the fuel levy was not considered at all by the government to pay for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP), when the decision [to e-toll] was taken in 2008".
Further, discussions regarding ring-fencing funds in the Road Maintenance Fund for maintenance had "not been finalised or completed".
Read together, these replies "revealed that the government did not explore all options in finding alternative funding for the GFIP, and therefore could not possibly have opted for e-tolling on the basis of careful and in-depth consideration".
