Jewish citizens drive e-tolls U-turn

The government has finally agreed to scrap the much-hated electronic tolling of Gauteng’s freeways (e-tolls) by 31 December 2022. After more than a decade of legal challenges, public protest, and widespread non-payment, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced on 26 October that National Treasury and the Gauteng provincial government would split the debt obligations of the South African National Road Agency Limited (SANRAL) 70:30.

Three Jewish men played significant roles in the original opposition to e-tolls. They were Jack Bloom, then leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Gauteng legislature; the late lawyer Owen Blumberg; and advertising guru Louis Gavin.

Bloom told the SA Jewish Report this week that in 2011, when e-toll gantries started being erected all over the province, “it caught the attention of the public. It was all theoretical before this happened. People got very agitated.”

Gauteng’s highways were upgraded in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, with little public consultation. To pay for the improvements, the e-toll system was established. Road users were outraged.

Because of the public ire, Bloom held meetings with the Road Freight Association, businessman Wayne Duvenage, and various stakeholders, to find a solution. At the time, they believed that meeting the government would resolve dissatisfaction with e-tolls amicably and fairly. “I said we needed to take a strong stand,” Bloom said.

This body soon became the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (OUTA), and the DA initially donated some seed funding. OUTA needed to be a legal entity to mount a court case against SANRAL just before the e-tolls were meant to become operational. “We had to have a legal opinion ready. We needed to have our ducks in a row,” Bloom said.

Based on a pro bono legal opinion by Blumberg, the Pretoria High Court temporarily halted the start date of the system. “It was a significant win,” Bloom said. “I think if it was a week later and the system was already up and running, we’d have lost.”

Bloom felt that opposition to e-tolls needed to get on the front foot, and that the DA should call for a consumer boycott. He recommended that Gauteng’s drivers not purchase e-tags – electronic devices that would pay for road use when passing under the gantries.

He had some convincing to do. Party leader at the time, Helen Zille, “wasn’t comfortable with us asking people basically to break the law,” Bloom said, but he eventually won the party’s approval for this approach.

Bloom then approached advertising guru Gavin, a Chabadnik who had worked on the African National Congress (ANC) election campaign in 1994, to help mount a civil-disobedience campaign. “We came up with the name ‘Tollfree GP’ and had stickers and t-shirts printed.”

Gavin said that the campaign was important to get things rolling, but credits OUTA with doing the heavy lifting. “We started it off, but the credit must really go to OUTA,” he said. “Once OUTA picked it up, it got real momentum. Jack did come up with the clever slogan, ‘Stop Highway Robbery!’ though.”

“DA involvement gave it credibility,” Bloom said, “even though people were reluctant to break the law to boycott the system. OUTA also committed to protect people against legal challenges for non-payment of e-tolls.”

In a dramatic gesture immortalised on YouTube, Bloom publicly tore up his e-toll bill in the Gauteng legislature. “I was nervous – it’s not normally how the DA operates. But I felt it was justified, and there were sound legal arguments why people shouldn’t have to pay. The clip has had more than 10 000 views. People would stop me in the supermarket to congratulate me. You can see the then premier of Gauteng, Nomvula Mokonyane, smirking at the end of the video.”

His involvement diminished over time as it was felt that OUTA should be non-political, but Bloom never gave up the fight.

Bloom said it was obvious from the start that e-tolls were never going to work. “There was such an outcry against e-tolls because of the lack of consultation, people’s voices not being heard, and, of course, the shlepp of the administrative burden and the extra expense. The mantra was that people could just take an alternate road, but it really wasn’t practical in this case. And the collection costs were outrageous, especially as we were paying an Austrian company massive amounts to do it.” Bloom said the debt could have been paid off already if a few cents had been added to the fuel levy at the beginning.

“I would like a full enquiry into the deals that were made,” said Bloom. “I don’t think the government has been honest about the real costs of the scheme.” The DA has asked questions in parliament and the legislature and used the Promotion of Access to Information Act in an attempt to get answers out of the government.

When Gauteng Premier David Makhura came into office eight years ago, “the ANC tried to be government and opposition at the same time”, Bloom said, “by saying it would get rid of e-tolls as they were so unpopular and were costing the ANC votes. But they could never quite get it done. We could have saved billions in collection fees. That’s the tragedy of this.”

The scrapping of e-tolls “is a victory for civil society”, Bloom said. “But it’s not over. The province still has to figure out a way to pay its portion of the debt.”

“It’s obviously an achievement and a victory for transparency, besides the fact that SANRAL is totally bankrupt,” Gavin said.

Gauteng citizens and perhaps those in other provinces will have to pick up the tab. This may make the ANC even more unpopular.

Both Bloom and Gavin expressed pride and satisfaction at what OUTA had achieved. It has kept the acronym, but changed its name to the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse to reflect its broader anti-corruption work beyond e-tolls.

“We were just good citizens fighting injustice who happened to be Jewish,” Bloom said.