More churches join protest over tolls

The Dutch Reformed Church said on Thursday (23 May) it was extremely concerned about the cost of these tolls.

Prof Nelus Niemandt, the chairman of the Dutch Reformed Church's general synod, welcomed the Catholic Church's stance on e-tolling.

"We support it. E-tolling poses a moral, ethical dilemma. There has been a huge investment in capital expenditure and now they have to e-toll just to pay for that," Niemandt said.

He said the matter would be raised at the next church committee meeting in July where it would consider the position taken by the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC) to denounce the buying of e-tags.

"We also support the SACBC on the call for a judicial inquiry. We call on a proper inquiry wholeheartedly."

Darren Sevitz, chief executive of the Union of Orthodox Synagogues, said e-tolling would have a practical impact on consumers of kosher products.

"Kosher certification is a major part of our business, which requires a physical inspection of food processing plants around the country," Sevitz said.

"At some point we have got to send inspectors in their cars to make sure manufacturers are complying with what is on their kosher certificate. We are concerned that travel costs will increase significantly because we spend thousands of hours and tens and hundreds of thousands of kilometres on the roads," he said.

Sevitz said they had not bought e-tags yet and had made no decision in that regard.

Widespread opposition

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (ELCSA) said it always considered the socio-economic problems facing its members. ELCSA general secretary Bheki Mathe said the church would discuss its stance on e-tolling and alternative solutions at a bi-annual church council meeting at the weekend.

The main concern was the economic impact on poorer people.

"Simple people who don't even get good or fair salaries will be highly affected, because e-tolls come with their own challenges, such as increases in transport costs," he said.

He said church members would feel the pinch because they had to travel from outside the province and even the country, to get to church meetings.

Central Methodist Church Bishop Paul Verryn agreed on Wednesday (22 May) that the proposed e-tolling system would adversely affect already economically struggling South Africans. He would propose a resolution for the Methodist Church to support the Catholic Church in denouncing e-tolling.

"I will be proposing, at our synod in Ithuseng, Rustenburg, that the church should support the Catholic Church in opposing the system. For me the difficulty is that this is a system which taxes even the poorest of the poor. People trying to make ends meet would be affected by the tolls," said Verryn.

The Apostolic Faith Mission of SA had not yet considered a stance on e-tolling.

"All I can say at this stage is that we would allow our members to act according to their own conscience and conviction. We are not prescribing or giving specific direction regarding it," the mission's president Isak Burger said.

Source: Sapa via I-Net Bridge