The Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) toll fee steering committee on Thursday put forward new, lower toll tariffs for the 185 km of road improved under the GFIP.

These tariffs would still have to be approved by the Minister of Transport, the Minister of Finance, and the Gauteng Premier, and were not the final toll fees, emphasised steering committee chairperson Department of Transport director-general George Mahlalela in Midrand, where the final stakeholder consultation meeting was taking place.

“The process will then be steered through Cabinet, with the same process followed in the Gauteng Cabinet. The outcome of the decision will be announced by [Transport] Minister [Sibusiso] Ndebele in due course.”

The steering committee, formed following public outcry over the toll fees as announced by the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) in February, recommended a drop from 30 c/km for motorcycles, to 24 c/km, and a decrease from 49.5 c/km for cars, to 40 c/km.

Trucks were set to gain a significant advantage under the new fee structure.

For medium trucks, the proposed toll tariff fee was to go down from R1.49/km, to R1/km, and for heavy trucks from R2.97/km to R2/km. Taxis would be charged 11 c/km, down from 16.5 c/km, and commuter buses 36.3 c/km, as opposed to 50 c/km.

These rates were all based on a vehicle having an e-tag account and an e-tag on its windscreen, and did not include other discounts.

Mahlalela said the reductions were made possible by the reallocation of costs – some costs were to be taken over by government, such as enforcement – the restructuring of debt, as well as the restructuring of the discount regime.

The time-of-day discount remained, with commuters still charged less for travelling in off-peak periods, but the revised fee structure made changes to the frequent-user discount, which had provided the biggest benefit to commuters using Gauteng freeways in the February announcement.

However, Sanral GFIP senior project manager Alex van Niekerk calmed fears that the new tariffs were simply a reshuffling of fees to produce the same answer, by noting that a commuter travelling from Johannesburg to Pretoria each day would pay less under the new regime as compared with the tariffs, discounts included, as calculated before.

“This is a real lowering of toll fees.”