The Gauteng e-toll gantries are equipped with cameras that can read number plates, so it would be a simple matter to implement a system that keeps track of all vehicles entering and leaving the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project road network. This lends itself to a simple alternative to the use of e-tags and the bewildering array of charges for each gantry, not to mention the strange discounts the South African National Roads Agency tried to implement: when a vehicle enters and passes through its first gantry, the system registers the vehicle’s presence and applies a charge of R5 to the motorist’s account. The system then merely monitors the vehicle’s continued presence as it passes through other gantries, with no further charges being applied. This persists until the vehicle fails to pass through a subsequent gantry within an expected period of time (i.e. the vehicle has exited the freeway), at which point the system deregisters the presence of the vehicle. Once the vehicle has ex...
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