Transport Minister S’bu Ndebele has conceded that the Gauteng e-tolling system was poorly planned.
|||Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance will push for a proper funding model for infrastructure projects to be put in place before decisions are taken, the party said on Tuesday.
In two separate meetings in Parliament, both Transport Minister S’bu Ndebele and transport portfolio committee chairperson Nozabelo Bhengu conceded that the Gauteng e-tolling system was poorly planned and lacked a proper funding model, DA spokesperson Ian Ollis said.
In a committee meeting on Tuesday morning, Bhengu had stated the committee “must revisit how the decision was taken” on the Gauteng e-tolling proposal.
Bhengu also stated that “we need policing at national level to prevent that from happening in the future”.
Ndebele, in his infrastructure development cluster briefing, stated that serious lessons had been learned as to how to proceed in future regarding such initiatives, and there was little or no consensus on how to pay for such infrastructure developments.
He had conceded that the outcry over the system was due to the process being seemingly devoid of public participation or input.
Ollis said this project should never have been allowed to go ahead without a proper funding model being agreed to by the Gauteng province, the national transport department, and National Treasury.
“In future, the DA will be pushing for a proper funding model to be put in place in terms of such infrastructure initiatives, as well as full participation and input from the public regarding their concerns with the implementation and the implications of such initiatives,” Ollis said.
“South Africans cannot be expected to bear the brunt of a proposed tolling system where proper public consultation processes were not followed, and all the funding implications were not fully considered.” - Sapa