WITH the toll roads, many of the trucks in the Boland, of which approximately 1500 operate from Wellington alone, will use alternate routes to the Metropole. Many of these routes are also in a very bad state of deterioration.
We have such a food crisis at the moment, and the last thing that we need is to increase the cost of food in the Western Cape.
The spiralling fuel prices are already causing many farmers to close shop.
In 2002 the estimation of toll costs to the deciduous fruit growers in the Boland alone was apparently already R414 million.
Tolling the N1 and N2 will increase production costs and will lead to job losses.
What bothers me even more is that awarding the toll roads concession will mean awarding a licence to print money, while the trade-offs are most unimpressive.
For instance, when the Western Cape Government awarded the Grand West Casino licence, the successful bidder undertook to build an international convention centre, which the Metropole desperately needed at that stage.
In the case of the proposed toll plazas, the least they could do is to build completely new roads, like tarring the road between Ceres and Calvinia, which will take a lot of heavy traffic off the N7 and N1.
This will also open up a new developmental corridor, just like the R27 West Coast route did to the West Coast when it was constructed.
The authorities are urged to rethink this proposed project.
