The Toll Road System is bad for the country- Catholic Parliamentarian- Manny De Freitas says

Article by Marc Aupiais

Where a contract results from government incompetence and bribery, which benefits special interests and hurts the citizens, I see no reason why such an immoral contract against public policy and the constitutional duties of government should be upheld- in my personal capacity. Further, the Tea Party, and Right Wing, while foreign concepts to the liberal Democratic Alliance, actually are those in America seeking sound financial governance and smaller government where this is efficient. They directly mirror the Democratic Alliance in these, or one would hope this were the case.

On to a press release emailed the South African Catholic SACNS by Manny De Freitas, a known Roman Catholic who the Editor of the Archdiocesan News, Johannesburg a long time ago: introduced our service to and we as they had: verified was: Member of Parliament, Shadow Deputy Minister for Transport, Member of Parliament for Johannesburg South, Democratic Alliance: Manny De Freitas, as the emails claimed:

Manny claims the following: given in full, as political statements are often twisted, something our service doesn't do in our past practice:

"Reasons to oppose Toll roads continue piling up

 

The construction of toll roads in Gauteng has been a subject of debate for a while now. The overwhelming majority of residents in Gauteng are against it – the main reason being that motorist will be forced to fork out money they don't have. The tight economic conditions we are currently in reinforce this. Government is making it expensive simply to get around. Unlike many other countries motorist have no choice as the use of a public transport system is not an option, simply because it does it exist.

 

The complicated e-tolling system alone costs some R14-billion. Whilst foreign companies install these systems and get rich, South Africans are forced to pay up and tighten their belts. Not only will motorists pay the toll fees but will be charged VAT on these charges. Basically, we will be paying tax on a tax!

 

The argument against toll roads continues to pile up. The reality is that with these expensive tolls have to be paid for by everyone, including businesses who have to use our roads for products and services. This will make everything more expensive. The poor will be most affected. Irrespective of what SACP (South African Communist Party) Secretary General, Blade Nzimande may say, who describes our anti-toll campaign as "right-wing, tea-party campaign" – the reality is that this will lead to a loss of jobs. As the cost to conduct business increases, businesses will have no option but to lay off workers or even move out of Gauteng to more economical provinces. Gauteng, the economic heartbeat will dramatically suffer.

 

As this happens and more and more people feel the financial pinch, motorists will seek alternative roads to use. Roads previously less used suddenly will become busy. This will mean that these roads will need additional repair and maintenance attention that they previously didn't require. These roads fall within the jurisdiction of municipalities and provinces. These tiers of government will be unable to keep up financially with the newly required repair work as they historically didn't have these requirements – and thus were not budgeted for. These roads will begin to crumble whilst local and provincial authorities will be unable to keep up with this decaying infrastructure.

 

Don't be fooled by the clever spin and smoke and mirrors coming from the Department of Transport and SANRAL (South African National Roads Agency Limited). The toll roads system in Gauteng is going ahead – the fight is not over. We need to fight it all the way.

 

Help us in this fight by visiting www toollfreegp.co.za and fill in the petition as a first step.

Sincerely,

Manny de Freitas MP"

Toollfreegp.co.za seems like a spelling error, however we have not corrected it: in accordance with policy.