The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has filed papers in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) seeking a declaratory order that the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) has abandoned its pursuit of outstanding e-toll debts from 2 028 individuals and businesses.
Outa, alongside the e-toll defendants it has defended for years, argues in court papers that Sanral’s inaction since 2019 effectively ends the claims.
The respondents include Sanral, the Ministers of Transport and Finance, the Minister and Director General of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, and the Commissioner of the South African Revenue Service (Sars).
Sanral has indicated that it intends to oppose the application, while no responses have been received from the others.
If the legal bid is successful, the court's declaration would remove the e-toll fee matters from court rolls, nullifying Sanral’s claims totalling R265 million at the time of the summons.
The largest claim is R13.5 million against a business, and the smallest is R1 249.20 against an individual. Outa is also seeking an order for Sanral to cover its legal costs.
Outa’s executive director of the Accountability Division Advocate, Stefanie Fick, filed the founding affidavit.
The e-toll saga began with the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP), which upgraded 185km of freeways and 34 interchanges at a R20 billion cost, funded by Sanral’s borrowings.
E-tolling commenced on December 3, 2013, to repay the debt. Outa has campaigned against it since 2012 and thousands of motorists refused payment.
In October 2022, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced that the GFIP debt would be covered by National Treasury (70%) and Gauteng province (30%), which was confirmed by Treasury and Gauteng MEC Jacob Mamabolo in November 2022 and March 2024. The e-toll declarations were withdrawn via a Government Gazette notice ending e-tolls at midnight on April 11, 2024.
“The toll declarations were clearly withdrawn as a consequence of the decision by government that Sanral’s e-toll debt would be funded directly from the national and provincial fiscus,” said Fick in her affidavit.
Outa launched its E-Toll Defence Umbrella in October 2015 to assist those summonsed between April 2016 and April 2019. Defences included notices of intention to defend and pleadings, with some cases advancing further. Proceedings halted in late 2018 pending a test case.
Sanral’s board resolved in March 2019 to suspend e-toll debt collection, stating at the time that this included historic debt and summonses applied for from 2015.
Outa said its attempts to confirm this abandonment and to recover costs – via letters, emails, and WhatsApp between CEOs Wayne Duvenage and Reginald Demana – had failed.
“Sanral’s failure to withdraw the actions and tender the costs is unfair and prejudicial to Outa and the defendants who are entitled to have certainty and obtain finality in the actions and are entitled to payment of the legal costs incurred in defending the actions,” Fick said.
Outa said it was now seeking closure for the defendants.
