South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) chief executive Nazir Alli lambasted the outcry over news that a mainly foreign-owned consortium has a R4-billion contract to collect tolls on the new Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP).

Speaking at a National Press Club conference in Pretoria, Alli said the country was seeking foreign direct investment, but at the same time there would be an outcry if a foreign company was given work.

"We need to make up our minds. Are we going to say we don't want foreign investment?" he asked.

ETC Joint Venture won the R6,22-billion tender to operate the controversial toll system.

It consists 65% of the Swedish and Austrian branches of the traffic technology company Kapsch while the South African company TMT holds a 35% stake.

There were four tenders for the project, with ETC Joint Venture the cheapest. The most expensive tender at R15,29-billion came from a Norwegian/Italian/South African joint venture.

On February 4, Alli announced that motorists can expect to pay 66 cents a kilometre before discounts when travelling on the 185 km GFIP.

Motorists who purchase the e-tag system will pay 49,5 cents a kilometre, while medium-sized vehicles with the e-tag system will be charged R1,49 a kilometre. Heavy duty vehicles with an e-tag will be charged R2.97 per kilometre.

Motorists would get further discounts depending on when they used the highway and on whether they were frequent users.

Users of the 185-kilometre system will not have to stop at a traditional toll booth, but will drive under gantries, fitted with electronic equipment as well as cameras, which photograph the vehicle's number plate and measure its size.

Each time a vehicle passes underneath a gantry, the toll will be deducted from the amount that has been loaded onto the e-tag.

If a user does not have an e-tag, the bill for the toll will be sent by post to the registered owner of the vehicle.

Gantries are between 5 km and 14 km apart -- an average of 10 km.

Alli said that Sanral had made a provision of less than two percent for non payment by motorists who were billed.

The announcement has caused an uproar with consumer groups and unions saying that the poor would be the most affected.

Congress of SA Trade Unions spokesman Patrick Craven said that the federation supported the upgrading of the country's road network.

"However the major problem with the proposed tolls, of up to 66c a kilometre, is that they are to be imposed before viable alternative forms of public transport have been provided.

"The hardest hit will be workers, especially those who live far from their workplace, for very many of whom there will be no alternative but to use tolled roads," he said.

Alli said that tolls collected would be used to pay off the estimated R20-billion in loans obtained to build the system and to maintain the roads.

South Africa has a road network of 135 000 km, of which 16 170 km fall under the control of Sanral and of this, 3 120 are tolled roads.

He believed that the tolls would have a minimum impact on inflation.