Johannesburg - The Democratic Alliance in Gauteng expects Finance Minister Tito Mboweni to announce during his budget speech this coming week that e-tolls are here to stay, the DA said on Sunday.
Mboweni indicated in previous budget speeches that he supported the user-pay principle regarding e-tolls. It was unlikely to be any different during this week's budget speech, DA Gauteng shadow MEC for roads and transport Fred Nel said in a statement.
"This will come as a blow to premier David Makhura who will be delivering his state of the province speech this week. It is unlikely that he will contradict Mboweni and will in all probability be silent on e-tolls during his speech."
This was a difficult position for Makhura, as he made an election promise that e-tolls would be scrapped. However, he may not have anticipated the drain that failing state-owned enterprises (SoEs) had placed on the fiscus, as well as the pending national health insurance (NHI), pushing the scrapping of e-tolls to the back of the queue.
The DA called on Makhura to honour his election promise or be honest with the people of Gauteng about the real state of play regarding e-tolls during his speech. He could no longer "string the people of Gauteng along, kicking the announcement to a future date, like he has done the past year", Nel said.