Deputy Speaker, I think if we had called for the recording of the actual committee meeting, you would have found that I stated very clearly that I am personally against this Bill, and so is my colleague, the hon Greg Krumbock. But that's neither here nor there.
After 16 years of underinvestment by this government in road infrastructure, we cannot expect this year's motorists to make up the cash shortfall to bail the ANC out of a funding crisis that now besets the SA National Roads Agency Limited, Sanral.
We have long called for ring-fencing of fuel levies that should only be used for road maintenance. Unfortunately, the ANC hates heeding advice from the opposition, and therefore spent the fuel levies on bailing out the South African Airways with about R11 billion; building freeways to Nkandla - we don't know how many millions yet; and the jet fuel for people like hon Minister Sisulu - we lost count of how much that is. And now, as Minister Gordhan has just found out, the money has run out, and someone has to pay for the roads.
The DA will be making a very important demand today that this government, together with Premier Nomvula Mokonyane, conduct a referendum in Gauteng to offer the voters a choice as to whether they want the e-toll system to pay for the Gauteng freeways or whether they prefer a fuel levy to fund them.
The ANC government has bungled the entire process of developing the e-toll Bill and left the public feeling ripped off. The first lesson they should learn is not to take the public for granted. There was some public participation during the planning of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, but in one meeting, for example, only 14 people were present. This shows how little people understood the implications of this project earlier on. Voters have become tired of a form of public participation that is a one-way conversation. We will tell you what we are going to do. As Speaker Sisulu stated in his parliamentary budget speech last year, "the quality and effectiveness of public participation cannot rest on simply providing a space and an opportunity for submitting comments". Unless you have a robust public participation process and engage in a two-way conversation, you run the risk of street marches, legal action and widespread protest down the line.
The second lesson to be learnt is that we must not assume that what is affordable in the Western countries is affordable in South Africa. Open- road tolling is used mostly in Western, urban and First World environments. We have many toll roads in South Africa. The problem is that the people have balked at the costs of this e-toll. South Africans, apart from a few super-wealthy, are not earning the same as Germans, Australians and Americans. If an individual earns R6 000 a month and drives a second-hand car to work, that individual could be required to pay an extra R550 a month for toll fees. That is a big chunk out of that individual's salary, and that is the problem.
The third lesson that should be learnt from the e-tolling saga is that politicians cannot abdicate responsibilities to officials and public servants to get on with it. This leads to a lack of understanding and accountability. Cue video of Minister Ndebele shouting down the phone: "Is that how much it's going to cost?" Apparently, he didn't know. [Laughter.] The DA has consistently kept the public informed of the flaws, and the limitations of the e-toll, with our Toll-Free GP campaign and encouraging the formation of the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance, Outa, consortium to take the matter to court. While doing so, we also worked on this legislation, and we argued for the inclusion of specific measures to improve this Bill at the same time. Firstly, the Bill will now require the Minister to send his draft toll fees to Parliament for our input before they are finally gazetted, allowing at least some oversight time for the toll fees, for the first time in South Africa. This was my proposal.
Secondly, Sanral and the department must perform socioeconomic and traffic impact studies, which will show the impact of the new toll roads on surrounding towns and cities. This would have prevented the degeneration of roads in towns like Parys, for example, where there is a toll road. Thirdly, the transport department will also need to table mitigating measures that will be put in place to prevent the negative traffic impact on socioeconomic and surrounding cities.
Fourthly, these studies under this new Bill will need to be published in the Government Gazette and on the Sanral website so that they cannot be hidden from the public or from the opposition. That was another thing that I argued for in the committee, and it was included.
Fifthly, Sanral agreed to the DA's request that they publish not only the cheapest e-toll rates up on those lovely billboards, but also the higher rates that people will need to pay if they do not register or purchase the e-tag. This was another one of the DA's proposals.
Finally, we requested that when this Bill goes to the NCOP, the provinces that have metro cities should be consulted on the content of the Bill before implementation because the Minister just said: "We are looking at other provinces too." KwaZulu-Natal, hold your breath.
Speaker, today we are faced with the vote on this piece of e-toll empowering legislation. The Minister of Transport announced on 22 February that after the vote today, he would urgently publish revised e-toll tariffs and then implement this within 14 days. The DA believes he has misunderstood the process of creating legislation in Parliament, however. This Bill will not become law today, Minister Martins. It will first go to the NCOP for further amendments. Then it will come back here and thereafter it will go to the President for his assent, and all that takes time. Your memorandum to this Bill says that you cannot implement the e-toll without this legislation. So why are you jumping the gun today? I don't understand.
Second to this, the Outa court case has not yet been finalised, and that may jeopardise the implementation if you rush ahead after today. This leaves plenty of time for the IEC to conduct a referendum in Gauteng on whether the e-toll funding model is acceptable to the public of Gauteng or whether they would prefer a fuel levy or some other funding model.
The DA is against the e-toll funding model for key reasons, hon Cronin. It is the world's most expensive toll collection system; we are not the world's wealthiest people. It may cost up to R11 billion over eight years, according to our calculations. Far too much of the profits go to Austria and not towards paying for roads in South Africa. We don't want to fund wealthy people in Austria, Minister Cronin. There are many more efficient funding models available, such as fuel levies or licence fees, where there aren't big fees to collect the money and, incidentally, I believe Sanral does not know how they are going to make people pay if they don't buy an e- tag. You can just see pictures of speed cops whizzing after a granny because she forgot to buy an e-tag. That is not the way to enforce this Bill.
Our calculations are that a fuel levy of 10 to 14 cents per litre would cover all the costs of the Gauteng freeway improvements. Yet Minister Gordhan announced on Wednesday that we are going to have a new fuel levy on 3 April, saying, and I quote: "This included an increase in the general fuel levy of 15 cents a litre." The question that the hon Gordhan fails to answer is why he is not using that fuel levy to pay for the Gauteng freeways instead of this e-toll system that we have been hearing about.
The public, hon Gordhan - who is not here - is not just a cash cow that you can keep on milking. Gauteng motorists will now have to pay a 23 cents additional fuel levy as well as the new toll fee of up to R550 per month per motor car - we have to pay twice!
Speaker, in the 19 years that the ANC has been in power, it has never conducted a single referendum; and it is high time we actually consulted Gauteng's voters on the e-toll. We therefore call on Premier Mokonyane, in conjunction with the IEC and government, to hold a referendum in Gauteng on the e-tolling system in April or in May, prior to the implementation of this Bill. [Interjections.] [Time expired.] [Applause.]