Johannesburg - The e-toll saga is fast heading to court as the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has already started defending about 100 motorists who have received summonses issued by roads agency Sanral for non-payment of e-tolls.
Sanral has issued about 6500 summonses to individuals and about 800 to businesses.
This morning, Outa chairman Wayne Duvenage said they had asked Sanral for proper information regarding the summonses because they were incomplete.
He said the summonses Sanral had issued were simple summonses, meaning they were not supported by other evidence such as photos of the motorists going through the e-tolls.
Duvenage said Sanral had until tomorrow to provide us with this information.
“Our view is that it is time to halt the issuing of summonses as these are going to clog the courts. Sanral must agree to take a test case to court with us so there can be a final outcome on the validity of the e-tolls.
“We are very well prepared for a new court case as we have had many years to investigate further since we lost the first court case to a technicality,” he said.
Legal system overload
The summonses should be suspended pending the outcome of such a test case as the courts couldn't deal with this huge number of summons, especially given the high number of criminal cases they had to hear, he said.
Also, administrative costs would be exorbitant with thousands of pieces of paper required to produce evidence of all e-tolls owing for these 6500 motorists and 837 businesses.
Duvenage said summonses were being issued in places like Cape Town and Pinetown where motorists previously lived.
The eNatis records were not up to date and this was a worry, he said.
"We are very concerned that the summonses are being stuck on gates where people previously lived and which will now result in them having summary judgments against them, because they have not received them and therefore cannot defend themselves," he said.
“Heavyweight” legal team
A top, heavyweight legal team has been put together which is confident of a positive outcome.
“They would not have taken the case were they not confident of a win,” he said.
Duvenage added that attorneys acting for both Sanral and motorists were expected to make a lot of money out of these court cases.
Sanral has budgeted R8.5m for legal fees in the 2015/16 financial year and R5.7m for the current year.
The Automobile Association said Outa’s request for a test case was a logical and smart move that would cut down on the administrative absurdity of having to produce evidence and records for every summons.
Spokesman Layton Beard said although this could be taken on appeal and to the Constitution Court by whoever lost, in the long run, there would be finality for motorists in limbo.
What is Sanral threatening?
This morning The Star was unable to reach Sanral spokesman Vusi Mona or the Electronic Toll Collection company.
However, the company said last month that motorists who were refusing to pay would be subjected to ongoing collection activity, listing of their vehicles and civil action. It said that there should be no misunderstanding about the possible consequences.
Sanral has said the recovery of public money will be ongoing and there will be consequences for non-payment. The outstanding public debt resulting from non-payment of e-tolls is legally owing.
Sanral has said it is an offence not to pay tolls and non-paying road users must be prepared for vehicle listing, collection activity and legal action.
The Star