While noting during his State of the Province address that a final decision on the new e-toll dispensation would only be made once the work of the intergovernmental team was completed, Gauteng Premier David Makhura assured motorists on Monday that they could expect some relief from the current e-toll burden.

“I am confident that the new dispensation should provide major financial relief to motorists, while simplifying the payment system to make it easy for road users to pay,” he told the provincial legislature, in Johannesburg.

After receiving the recommendations and findings of a report by a panel of transport experts in January, Makhura outlined that the province had engaged with local and national government on the way forward.

He reiterated on Monday that the panel made it clear that the e-toll system needed to be reviewed to mitigate affordability issues for low- and middle-income motorists, as well as ensure administrative simplicity.

He did, however, reaffirm the user-pays principle.

“The provincial government is part of the current consultation process, led by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, to develop a better dispensation, which will mitigate the negative impact of the e-tolls on the people of Gauteng, especially the middle- and lower-income groups,” he commented.

Among its recommendations, the panel proposed a hybrid funding model –comprised of contributions by national and provincial government – to ease the financial burden on motorists.

It further found that the implementation of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project had benefited the economy but that while there was general acceptance of the user-pays principle, in its current form, the system was unaffordable and inequitable.