"The president has noted and finds extremely unfortunate and deeply regrettable recent public exchanges between Finance Minister Tito Mboweni and the Gauteng provincial government on this matter," the presidency said in a statement.

"The president says such exchanges on social media are unbecoming of their high offices and fail to provide the leadership required in this instance."

The public interest was best served through collaboration, not conflict, and the appropriate platform for leaders to express and reconcile differing views was cabinet and other coordination forums.

Ramaphosa had called on the ministers and premier to table proposals to cabinet by the end of August 2019. While the user-pay principle remained a policy of government, the e-tolling system, as part of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Plan (GFIP), presented challenges in its current form.

Ramaphosa expected that the consultations within government over the coming weeks would produce workable outcomes, the presidency said.

African News Agency (ANA)