Opinion on E-Tolls Essay

A democracy is a giving medication by the people and when the people are non universe led, just they are universe forced, then at that place are many a nonher(prenominal) questions about the democratic governance that need to be soliciting and retorting. The e-Toll schema is an electronic tolling system that does not require motorists to stop in order for them to be billed, just as an ordinary toll booth. This system is being oblige on to the motorists of Gauteng and is being masked as a method of face lifting funds for the development of Gauteng roads and ultimately, to the south African roads. The imposing of this system is unionly out of the scope of a democracy it is a ample waste of r hithertoue payers money and should be totally abolished by the South African government.Several e-tolls are found on various highways in Gauteng and how they work is once you drive under them, it scans your e-tag and license plates (at the front and back), takes an gossamer view of your car, measures the size of it (in order to know how much to bill you), feels whos registered to the vehicle and then they are billed electronically. As fancy as it sounds, vehicle users in Gauteng are on the brink of daylight looting with the new e-toll system that is about to be imposed on them by SANRAL (South African Road Agency Ltd.), and if nothing is done, the country pass on find itself being dragged by the neck in a so-called democracy.The stolon issue that comes into play with the e-toll system is the financial issue of e-tolls. SANRAL accumulated a debt in excess of 20 billion rands over the past a couple of(prenominal) years with the renovations of the Gauteng highways. The government believes that this debt can be covered over some(prenominal) years by implementing the user-pay principle which is simply road users paying to be on the roads. Two issues sprout from this. The first, OUTA has done some calculations on the total cost of repaying the debt over those 20 years and instead of the 20 billion rand owed, you find that with the e-toll, Gauteng motorists leave alone be paying, an excess of 75 billion rands. The government is yet to explain why they are charging users a whole serving more than what they need to be repaying. This is a huge waste of tax payers money as there are already fuel levies being paid to help aid the construction of South African roads. The second, Austrian company Kapsch, will be collecting a total of 665 meg rand annually for the next 8 years, giving a feeling of orphicinvestors prospering rather than the benefit of the people.Government argues that this large income of money from e-Tolls will benefit the working and the poor class because they will not corroborate to pay and they tie the assurance of safer roads without having to pay. This all seems well but what government forgot to mention is the fact that with the increase in road usage, there will definitely be an increase in the cost of living. tru ckage companies that deliver the cheap goods to local supermarket will increase their price of feat which will increase the price of goods which will surely impact their pockets. This does not just limit itself to the delivery of goods. E-tolls do not cook as many benefits as first anticipated because the money spent is for the roads and you find that public transport in South Africa is still in a shocking state and many users will still get in vehicles that are not road-worthy and that will not benefit them even if the roads are better.South African, especially Gauteng, road users already have a big issue with the payment of traffic fines. The e-toll system will find that people will fail to pay their bills as in the case of Portugal. A country as developed as Portugal had a total of 19% of users failing to pay their fees and that saw more than a double-increase in the costs of administration in the short space of a year. South Africa, as a developing country, will have themselve s a large handful of people who will not pay for their fees. The government will have themselves too much to deal with and will lay the burden on the shoulders of the road users again and the cycle will not end.