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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.
