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The Freedom Front Plus welcomes the Minister of Transport, Mr. S’bu Ndebele’s decision to postpone the implementation of the Gauteng tollgate project. According to the Minister a decision will only be taken in February 2012 about the tollgate system. The FF Plus is of the opinion that the handing over of more than 100 000 audited protest signatures with the Gauteng Legislature, as collected by the party’s online petition www.tollgatepetition.org.za <http://www.tollgatepetition.org.za/> had made an essential contribution to the decision. The decision to halt the project comes approximately a week after the signatures were handed over to the Legislature,” Adv. Anton Alberts, FF Plus parliamentary spokesperson on Transport said.

“In addition the inter-party coalition amongst the FF Plus, Cope, DA, ACDP and ID in the Gauteng Legislature should have made it clear to the Minister and the ANC that people from across a wide spectrum are opposed to the tollgate system. The FF Plus will however continue to put pressure on the Minister to completely scrap the tollgate system and obtain the necessary funds from the existing fuel levy,” Alberts added.

In the mean time the FF Plus has since the re-launch of the online petition already received 5700 new signatures. According to Adv. Alberts it is proof that the public’s opposition to the Gauteng tollgate system is still growing. “The Freedom Front Plus has also in a bulk e-mail asked online petition signatories whether they would be prepared to participate in public protest actions. Nearly 10 000 people have reacted positively and said that they would support such action,” Alberts said. “If the government is to continue with the activation of the tollgate system, they will experience real public opposition to such an extent that mass public disobedience is a possibility.”

The FF Plus also expressed its satisfaction with the decision of government to appoint another task team to further investigate the Gauteng tollgate system. It is just a pity that the public will not have any representation on this committee but it is encouraging that the Deputy Minister of Transport, Mr. Jeremy Cronin, acknowledged that the toll system is not sensible to finance the building and maintaining of roads,” Alberts added.

It appears that the government is eventually hearing the rational voices of the taxpayers and road users. The FF Plus will in conjunction with other political parties continue to put pressure on the government in an attempt to stop this system.