It will now cost R242 to go from Joburg to Durban

• New toll fees kick in on 1 March, and users of most toll roads will pay around 4.8% more than the 2018 charges.
• Toll tariffs, especially for Gauteng’s etolls on freeways, are complicated, so we’ve broken the increases down by route.
• Using the N3 from Johannesburg to Durban will now cost you R242, and travelling north from Pretoria to either the Zimbabwe or Mozambique borders will come in at around R262.

The department of transport has announced toll free increases just shy of 5% for most major routes in South Africa.

The new toll tariffs come into operation on 1 March.

For some toll roads the minister of transport has leeway in setting fees, though for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GIPF) – better known as the e-tolls system – increases are limited to a maximum the consumer price index (CPI) for the previous 12 months.

According to the latest numbers from Statistics SA, consumer inflation was 4.5% in December – which is also the exact increase of the popular e-toll route we analysed.

Assuming you are using a normal car (class A for most routes, or class A2 for e-toll roads) and do not qualify for any special discount or frequent-user tariff, this is how much you will now pay to use some of South Africa’s most popular roads.

Travelling from Soweto to east of Pretoria will cost R1.28 more.

Time-of-day discounts for e-toll gantries, ranging from 9.7% between 10:00 and 14:00 up to 49.3% late at night, have not been adjusted. The maximum monthly charge for car users has been increased by 3.76%, from R266 to R276.

Driving from Cape Town to Johannesburg will cost R8 more.

Local-user tariffs for the Vaal River plazas have been increased by smaller amounts than the route average. Residents of Evaton and Sebokeng will pay the same R3 at the Grasmere plaza as they did in 2018, while Verkeerdevlei residents will pay R17, just 3% more, to pass the Verkeerdevlei booms.

Frequent-user discounts – 20% for 20 or more uses and 40% for 40 or more uses – on the N1 plazas remain unchanged.

The Johannesburg to Durban holiday route will come in at R11 more expensive.

Motorists from the Zimbabwe border post of Beitbridge, will pay R12 extra in tolls to get to Pretoria via Polokwane.

Getting to the Mozambique border from Pretoria will be R12 more.