The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) has thrown down the gauntlet to roads agency Sanral and the government. The alliance will seek leave to appeal a judgment handed down on 13 December by Judge Louis Vorster in the North Gauteng High which gave the green light to e-tolling after it dismissed an application by Outa to get the system scrapped.

Wayne Duvenage, the face of the legal battle against e-tolls, announced the group’s decision after Outa’s members were locked in discussions with its legal team on Monday.

The Alliance says it’s filed its appeal in the e-tolling case and will now wait for a hearing to be set by the North Gauteng High Court. Outa’s Peter Conradie said they hope the hearing will happen in the next few weeks. “We will now have to wait for the judge to give us a date and a time for the application for leave to appeal to be heard. It usually doesn’t take a lot of time. It can be concluded within half hour or an hour, said Conradie

Speaking to Radio Islam's Moulana Sulaimaan Ravat, Wayne Duvenage said "We found that the judgment was seriously flawed. We believe our grounds for leave of appeal is very strong. Based on the premise that the public consultation process was extremely flawed and it did not take place meaningfully in accordance with the constitution and on that basis it will be wrong for us not appeal this case."

Asked by Moulana Ravat if Outa would be involved in calling for civil disobedience with the likes of Cosatu, Duvenage said, "We have indicated that's it’s not a legal right for you to buy an e-tag, you are not compelled (to have) an e-tag from Sanral. So you can pay the system directly. We are not saying society should do anything illegal. We are a law abiding society, we believe in Outa abdicates the rule of law must apply. What we are saying that society needs to use its passive methods to reject the system which we believe is unlawfully being introduced."

Outa has raised R7 million for its legal challenges, but will need around R4.5 million to R5 million more to pay its current costs and that of an appeal. Duvenage says "Outa is also appealing the cost order and is hoping to win. “Yes we do need funding, we now need civil society to have the courage and standup and support this case more than ever before. More than civil society and public, business need to participate, because without their support this case goes nowhere."

"We definitely need to have more funding and more support from society. And it's easy to do it on our website at www.outa.co.za We do encourage people to go and participate and give us the first months savings of e-tolling and we believe that we will raise these funds," added Duvenage.