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The SANRAL CEO, Mr. Skhumbuzo Macozoma, issued a statement threatening to lay criminal charges against selected members of the public – probably big companies – who have not paid their e-tolls.

In addition, SANRAL plans to obtain default judgments against those who ignored summonses for outstanding e-tolls.

OUTA finds it strange that after having agreed to a test case on the e-toll matter, SANRAL is now attempting to circumvent this agreement by pushing for civil and criminal charges. SANRAL’s lawyers had agreed with OUTA that the best way forward was to proceed with a test case to settle the legal issues against e-tolling – as soon as all the necessary documents have been made available by SANRAL.

If the test case goes the way OUTA expects it to, then SANRAL will have no case against anyone – either criminally or with respect to defaults from summonses issued in the past. Instead of waiting for that to happen, SANRAL appears to be trying to take advantage of members of the public who have not been close to these developments.

OUTA will seek an urgent meeting with the head of the NPA, to discuss this transparent attempt to use the courts to bully the public - before the legal issues have been determined in the test case.

OUTA urges all members of the public to recognise these tactics as the desperate actions of an organisation whose illegitimate collection scheme is failing.

OUTA is compiling a list of actions which the public can take when dealing with the various scenarios that may arise in this e-toll matter. This will be available on the OUTA website at www.outa.co.za later this week. This information will also assist those people - or companies - who are issued with charges for not paying their e-tolls.

OUTA urges the public not to panic; OUTA maintains that its test case challenges all the unlawful aspects of the e-Tolling scheme. This will prevent the public from being victimised for not paying e-tolls. If you need help, contact OUTA. We will defend all members who face criminal charges that are trying to take advantage of the fact that the test case has not been heard yet.

“In our opinion, SANRAL should be focussing on preparing for the test case to ensure it proceeds on an urgent basis, rather than taking advantage of members of the public who are not OUTA members,” says Ben Theron, OUTA’s Portfolio Director.

Issued by OUTA