A number of questions around the workings of the e-tolls still need to be answered. These are:
- Exactly how will an e-toll offender be prosecuted?
- How long will you be given before you have to pay your e-toll bill? And then how long until you are prosecuted?
- Can you be arrested and will you get a criminal record if you don’t pay your e-toll fees?
- Will you be allowed to drive on the highway if you haven’t paid your e-tolls? Will you be stopped and hauled off the road?
- If you come from outside the area and don’t get a day pass, how will you be billed?
SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) chief executive Nazir Alli said yesterday that special courts would not be used and they would use existing legislation to prosecute e-toll offenders, but there was no in-depth explanation on what motorists could expect.
“Sanral does not have any police offices or law enforcement,” said Alli. “Sanral will not be doing any law enforcement on the roads.”
Alli said law enforcement would be enacted by community policing units and at a national level by the Road Traffic Management Corporation.
In July 2011, Sanral told The Star that an invoice would be sent to the road user (making use of eNatis and third-party databases). A seven-day grace period would be given in which to pay the toll fee.
Administrative fees would be added after the grace period and no discounts would apply.
Should the road user not pay, administrative and enforcement activities would be initiated. There was no explanation what these would be.
The National Prosecuting Authority was also unable to shed light yesterday on the prosecution questions behind e-tolls.
NPA spokeswoman Phindi Louw said she would not be able to answer questions yesterday because “the prosecutor who deals with traffic fines is out of the office”.
Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance chairman Wayne Duvenage said he was astonished that even now that an e-tolling launch date has been given, there is still no step-by-step explanation for the public how this would work.
“We need answers,” he said. -The Star