In the years leading up to the recent 2010 FIFA World Cup, the government of South Africa invested many billions of Rand in infrastructure, including new stadia and new and improved roads and highways. One of the major road infrastructure projects undertaken by the government is the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) which sought to enhance the road network connecting all parts of Joburg, from north to south and east to west. Building these roads has costs many billions of Rands and by February of this year, SANRAL had raised bonds in excess of R20 billion fund now almost completed GFIP. One of the ways government had envisaged to fund the investment in the road infrastructure is through the introduction of tolls.
For many months, the national Department of Transport through its road management agency, the SA National Road Agency Limited (SANRAL) has been planning a sophisticated open-road tolling system to be piloted on the roads of Joburg. As part of this plan, gantries which will carry the equipment that will be used to read tags mounted on passing vehicles, have been constructed on Joburg's main highway, the N1. While these gantries were being built, a debate on the rates to be charged has been brewing and in August of 2011 Cabinet approved the new toll tarrifs. In the meantime, history was made on 7 November when SANRAL announced that, with immediate effect, motorists can register their vehicles for the new open-road tolling system, to be known as e-toll.
South Africa has among the highest road traffic in the world and the new open-road tolling system is expected to change the way South Africans commute. You may not agree with the new open-road tolling system, but the roads of Joburg are now simply world class. Government intends to roll out the open-road tolling system throughout the country in the coming years.
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