Road are public goods; Don’t buy e-Tags! 26 October 2012 The Congress of South Africa Trade Unions is calling upon all members of the society not to buy e-tags.
This comes after a great disappointment at the Cabinet’s decision to steam ahead with e-tolling on Gauteng’s freeways. This decision which we dispute was based on recommendations made by the Inter Ministerial Committee [IMC]. The engagements by the IMC with other stakeholders, including COSATU, have been nothing of the sort. Any serious proposal for alternative mechanisms for paying for the freeway improvements, including using petrol fuel levy and/or introducing new tax bracket for the super-wealthy, were rubbished by the IMC. The process as led by Treasury, the views put by the IMC at the beginning of the ‘consultation process’, were exactly the same as at the end of ‘consultations’. Whilst the tariffs which are proposed have been tweaked to appear attractive, this is a cold comfort. COSATU argues that as much as tweaked tariffs appear, they can still be increased later. COSATU further argues that so long as Gauteng freeways are tolled, the boom-gates will be open for other roads in other provinces to follow suit. COSATU will continue to fight against the introduction of mechanisms meant to commodify our public goods, including the freeways. The alternative roads mooted are meaningless. In some cases the alternative roads are not yet upgraded and whilst in other instances are congested to full-blast, adding more traffic woes. The alternative roads will be a national disaster for motorists in particular and the provincial economy in general. COSATU is calling upon all citizens not to register to buy e-tags. We will continue to mobilize society at large against the introduction of e-tolling in Gauteng freeways and elsewhere. COSATU will embark on a campaign in lodging objections to the tariffs when they are published, and also re-activating the serving of Section 77 Notice through NEDLAC. Norman Mampane (Communications Officer) Congress of South African Trade Unions 110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Street Braamfontein 2017 P.O.Box 1019 Johannesburg 2000 South Africa Tel: +27 11 339-4911 or Direct 010 219-1342 -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
