These e- tolls have been built on every freeway possible and motorists have been paying at least 30c/km, which is already quite alot of money being spent on the roads. Already the public have gien a negative veiw on Phase one of the new e- toll system and the government want to make it worse by attempting to introduce Phase two, which means that they want to spread the project to other provinces such as the Western Cape and KwaZulu Natal. And ever since it was announced, many unhappy citizens who own any sort of vehicle capable of being driven on the freeways, weren't as impressed as they were supposed to be.
So the public took the chance and protested immediately with the help of Cosatu, leading the protest. Cosatu also disagreed with this Phase two. Many people came together to protest against Phase two of the e- toll and were successful in doing so.
And because of the successful public protest, the government might reconsider implementing Phase two of the project. Although it seems the departmental spokesperson Tiyani Rikhotso has been unclear as to whether Phase two will be scrapped, we'll have to wait and see.
In my opinion, I wouldn't even have had a Phase two in the first place, There was already so much tension and anger from the public and the government really didn't take much notice of it and carried on with the project. Yes, they were probably looking out for the interests of the country and that clearly did''nt work. I'd say there is lack of public involvement and procedure. So it's good there was a successful protest, it somehow opened up the governments eyes. Phase one is a really beautiful project, just expensive.
This was a lesson to them, that they need to start involving the public more and inform us of their decisions sometimes because at the end of the day it's the public that has the upper hand. Hopefully there won't be a Phase two anytime soon.
