E-tolling will impoverish our people: Maponya

Maponya emphasised that, "As far as e-tolling is concerned I think it is going to impoverish our people, because what it actually means is that once it starts it will go on for ever. Nobody is going to stop it anymore. We will pay, our children will pay, our grand-children and great grand-children will still be paying. I really feel this is something we should be thinking about first before imposing this kind of penalty on our people."

Get rid of it

The Soweto business legend feels that SA is not yet a first world country and they must do away with the system.

"We are not as yet a first-class world country. They shouldn't take things they see in the first-class world countries and introduce them into a place like SA," stressed Maponya in an exclusive interview with I-Net Bridge/BusinessLIVE.

On a lighter note while at the recent Soweto Motor City launch the Gauteng Premier, Nomvula Mokonyane, known as "Mama action" said jokingly in her speech that people who reside in Soweto township must shop and buy cars in Soweto to avoid e-tolling.

She encouraged people to invest in the township saying, "This is the work of a visionary who has broken the back of apartheid by doing away with our townships being the dormitories that they were. You have the Maponya mall and you've got women and men who believe in our townships and the fact that they shall never be the same again. Invest in economic development of the townships and guess what, if you shop at Maponya mall, and buy your vehicle here (Soweto Motor City) and you reside here, you don't have to pay any e-tolls within Soweto!" she joked.