Government looks at new use for e-toll gantries

Government is weighing a new future for Gauteng’s abandoned e-toll gantries, with plans now under study to use the infrastructure for speed enforcement and vehicle licence checks. Transport Minister Barbara Creecy said a formal business case is being developed after a new agreement between SANRAL and the Gauteng provincial government to investigate whether the gantries can be repurposed.

According to Creecy’s parliamentary reply, the plan includes monitoring average speed over distance and checking motor vehicle licences. She said the business plan will determine the project’s budget, timelines and implementation path.

A costly system may get a second life

The idea lands on infrastructure that remains politically loaded. E-tolls were introduced in 2013 to fund the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Plan, with motorists charged for driving under gantries on major roads including the N1, N3, N12 and R21. But the system was widely rejected, with many drivers refusing to pay. After years of resistance and low compliance, government shut it down in 2024.

The scale of the original investment still hangs over the debate. According to OUTA and a 2012 parliamentary reply cited in the report, the capital cost of the e-toll system was just over R20 billion. With 43 overhead gantries across Gauteng, that works out to roughly R465 million per gantry.

Support comes with sharp warnings

The proposal is not entirely new. A SANRAL tender published in 2022 had already suggested using the gantries to help track stolen vehicles and identify cloned number plates. That crime-fighting angle has support from some critics of e-tolls, provided the system is not turned into another public revenue machine.

OUTA chief executive Wayne Duvenage said the gantries should not be wasted and could serve society if used for the right reasons. But he warned against relying on them mainly for fines, arguing that visible policing remains more effective and that a fine-driven approach would be questionable. He also said the public must be shown the business plan.

Big promise, but planning will matter

Professor Innocent Musonda from the University of Johannesburg also said the proposal could work, especially if used for crime detection, vehicle tracking and traffic management. But he stressed that success would depend on coordination across departments and proper planning.

That may be the real test. Gauteng already has the gantries. The question now is whether government can turn a failed tolling symbol into something useful, trusted and clearly in the public interest.