E-TOLLS: THIS IS THE END

Gauteng premier David Makhura’s commitment this week to scrap e-tolls is official confirmation that the disastrously handled tax on motorists is dead in the water.

Makhura made the announcement after he was elected unopposed as the ANC’S provincial chair. The timing is instructive: the party is actively working to maintain its hold on Gauteng, ahead of the 2019 national election.

His words are also an admission by the ANC that unhappiness over e-tolls has contributed to the party’s loss of support. The e-tolls issue was a contributing factor to the ANC’S loss of two key metros, Johannesburg and Tshwane, in local government elections in 2016.

“We have a plan to make sure e-tolls are a thing of the past. We shall assess everything we do in relation to how it affects our people and their wellbeing,” Makhura said.

But he will have to say more about the nature of that plan to appease Gauteng voters. He is on record — as far back as February — stating that he would engage with President Cyril Ramaphosa to find a new funding model for e-tolls. Since then, no concrete plan has emerged.

Resistance to e-tolls is already widespread. And for Makhura to really win over motorists who have refused to pay, he will have to take them into his confidence — sooner rather than later.