The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) says it will defend motorists who receive a summons for outstanding e-toll debt from the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral).
This comes after Mampho Modise, deputy director-general of public finance at National Treasury told Moneyweb in an interview on Monday that “Gauteng has agreed that that debt should and will be collected”.
Outa questioned Modise’s statement, calling it “confusing” since motorists’ e-toll debt is collected by Sanral and not the Gauteng provincial government.
“What makes the threat of going after those with outstanding e-toll debts even more confusing is that Sanral stopped issuing summonses against e-toll defaulters in 2019, and most of this debt has now been prescribed,” said Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage.
Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, announced the end of e-tolls in October 2022.
In January 2023, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi announced that R6.9 billion would be refunded to motorists who had paid e-tolls.
However, he has since backtracked.
During last week’s State of the Province Address, Lesufi announced that e-tolls will be switched off by 31 March.
He also said the Gauteng provincial government had agreed to pay R12 billion towards Sanral’s e-toll debt to finalise the matter.
Duvenage said: “We are left more confused than ever by the latest announcement by Modise.
“Who should we believe, especially since it’s an election year with different politicians making many promises?”
He accused government of being indecisive and incapable of implementing its own policies.
“Between Sanral, Premier Lesufi, Minister Godongwana and the Department of Transport, it seems that nobody knows what is really going on when it comes to finalising the e-toll debacle.”
He said it seemed government had forgotten the test court case between Sanral and Outa supporters over summonses issued for outstanding e-toll debt, which remained in limbo.
Since February 2019, Outa lawyers have been defending 2,028 cases on behalf of e-toll defaulters who received summonses from Sanral, with a total value of R262,590 million.
Of these, 1,929 cases, with a total value of R112,276 million, were brought before the magistrates’ courts, with 99 cases in the high court valued at R150.315 million. An aspect of these cases is challenging the constitutionality, and therefore the lawfulness and enforceability, of the e-toll scheme.
In March 2019, Sanral’s board passed a resolution to stop e-toll summonses and in the meantime, all these cases have been placed on hold, leaving the legal matter in limbo.
Duvenage said Outa will defend every motorist who receives a summons from Sanral for outstanding e-toll debt, provided they give Outa the mandate and that the organisation has the funds to do so.
“We will not merely accept government’s irrational plan to collect debt on their inefficient, costly and largely unworkable system, especially since they themselves announced that e-tolls will be cancelled,” Duvenage said.