The ANC's Winelands Toll Road

Statement by Robin Carlisle, Minister of Transport and Public Works

Whilst there are many aspects to the current Winelands Toll Roads controversy, one thing is indisputable - This is an ANC toll road.

The idea was hatched by the ANC National Department of Transport whilst the ANC was in power in the Western Cape.

The ANC National Minister of Transport publicly wrote to the ANC Premier Rasool - as he must in terms of the law - to ask if the Province objected to the toll road.

No objections were received from the ANC Provincial Government, and so the ANC National Minister instructed the SA National Roads Agency (an entity which reports to the Minister and whose board and CEO are appointed by him) to go ahead and toll the two busiest roads in the province.

At no time had the voters of the Province asked for these toll roads, and at no time were they consulted until, far down the process, a limited public participation occurred. Every single submission received in that public participation was against tolling .The objections were replied to but otherwise ignored.

The Winelands toll road was an ANC project from beginning to end. It was concocted by the ANC National Government, approved by the ANC Provincial Government and is being implemented by an agency that reports to, and is financed by, the ANC Government.

There has not been one word of objection to the toll road from any member of the ANC, and a particularly deafening silence from ANC provincial leader, Marius Fransman.

When voters go to the polls in April 2014, the contract work on the toll road would not yet have begun, regardless of the outcome of the court challenges.

We, the people of the Western Cape, must treat that election as a referendum on the toll road.

Every vote for the ANC in the April 2014 election will be a vote for the toll road. Every vote against the ANC, regardless of for which party, will be a vote against the toll road.

I call on the voters of the Western Cape to show the ANC the real teeth of a functioning democracy.