There were sighs of relief, cheers and applause inside the Johannesburg City Hall on Monday night when Premier Panyaza Lesufi announced the 'permanent' demise of disastrous e-tolls in Gauteng during his maiden State of the Province Address.

The controversial e-toll project, which has been a headache for Gauteng residents for more than a decade, has finally been scrapped, at least according to Premier Panyaza Lesufi's latest announcement.

"Residents of Gauteng, we are pleased to report that e-tolls have been scrapped permanently in our province. Together with the minister of finance and transport, we will make a joint announcement in this regard."

The system was initially meant to be scrapped in December 2022, but the province missed the deadline, citing that key components of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the national and provincial governments still needed to be finalised.

Nearly two months later, the details have still not been finalised.

Lesufi revealed that the provincial and national governments were on the "verge" of agreeing on several matters including when exactly the e-tolls would be switched off, the debt repayment methods and, lastly, what would happen to funds collected from paying customers and non-paying customers.

The head of the Organisation Undoing...