Did you ever see me complain? I'm not saying I'm mad about the idea, but I'm also enough of a realist to know that some things are beyond our control.
As for the Natal holdup, that is not due to some futile petition. That is because someone actually handed in valid documents etc with regard to environmental impacts and what not else.
What also gets me is who moan and do nothing and then try to make themselves feel better by going off at the same kind of people, because now he feels he is doing something. Signing some crappy online petition is, I guarantee going to make ZERO difference. Do you honestly think that after all the money that was put into this project, they will abandon it now? Or reduce costs? And don't tell me people will not use the highway now, because I promise that after one week of trying to use alternate routes they will gladly pay the toll. OR, even better, they might consider using the Gautrain.
Everyone so badly wants SA to become a first world country, but aren't prepared to do the work and pay for it. Yeah, in a perfect world we should get free education, free medical care, free roads, free local telecoms, but guess what, it ain't a perfect world. There are toll roads across Europe, the US and elsewhere. Hell, look at London and the inner city tolls. SA is not unique in this.
I suspect that the government is trying to get people to wake up to the idea of car pooling or heaven forbid, even using public transport. Yeah, public transport is far from perfect in the country, but why not do something about that rather? We might not also have the greatest infrastructure, but when government tries to improve it by building the gautrain, everyone bitched about that too. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying government is perfect, far from it actually, but they are not total incompetents either. Otherwise SA would be in the sewers by now, flushed away.
All' I'm saying, yes the toll roads are expensive, but they are not going to go away either from some pointless online petition. And yes, it is pointless. Rather make an impact study on what this would cost the average Joe and how this will impact his living and what he will now no longer be able to afford or pay etc. That I think might have a better impact. And always involve the media.
