The SA National Roads Agency (SANRAL) wants to introduce toll roads on the N1 and N2 between the city and the Winelands.  The City of Cape Town has objected and declared an intergovernmental dispute.

The story first appeared, as far as I know, in The Sowetan – Cape Town not happy with tolls. SANRAL’s website has info on the N1/N2 Winelands Project and N2 Knysna Toll Highway.

Tolling roads is the most insidious form of tax (since motorists already pay a road levy as part of fuel taxes).   As has been shown in Gauteng – which has more toll roads than the whole of the UK – it is the thin end of the wedge.  Tolls for sections like Chapman’s Peak Drive and the Huguenot Tunnel can be justified, but not roads that are part of the essential infrastructure government is duty-bound to provide.

SANRAL has the policy of “the user pays”… but the user already pays.  Toll roads are run by concessionaires for profit, and I don’t believe that essential infrastructure should have costs loaded in this way.

Have your say.  If SANRAL has theirs, you can expect a toll plaza near you sometime soon.