Johannesburg - The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has accused the SA National Roads Agency Ltd (Sanral) of being “disingenuous” with regard to its commitment to a test case for Gauteng’s e-toll defaulters.
Ivan Herselman, Outa’s director of legal affairs, said this week that Sanral had agreed in “principle” to a test case to assess the legality and practicability of the e-toll scheme and its effect on society. The case would involve a cross-section of Outa members.
“Our attorneys and theirs had a meeting where a test case was agreed to in principle. The agreement was that we would firm it up in writing and send it to them to sign off.
“That was two weeks ago, and there’s been nothing. I think they see, by coming to a sensible agreement, the danger that they are going to strengthen us.”
Sanral spokesman Vusi Mona said Outa had asked Sanral, which had issued thousands of summons to defaulters, to agree to a test case.
“No agreement regarding that test case has been reached at this stage, but discussions with Outa’s legal team are continuing.
“If there is to be a test case, the parameters of such a test case would first need to be agreed.
“It isn’t correct that cases against Outa members will be placed on hold. In other words, being an Outa member does not automatically suspend any case against any road user.”
Sanral was in favour of legal certainty and believed Outa’s challenges would not succeed, Mona said.
“All cases for the recovery of tolls are continuing unless agreement is reached with Sanral to the contrary.”
Herselman said the matter might go before court.
“We may be in a situation where we’ll have to get a court order now because it’s not sensible to have possible conflicting judgments around the country, with millions of rands spent on litigation where there is legal uncertainty.”
Saturday Star