Mohamed Ameen Dabhelia – 2016-03-24

The South African National Roads Agency has confirmed that civil summonses running into millions of rands are being handed out by sheriffs starting this week.

Yesterday, Sanral spokesman Vusi Mona said one of the highest bills was for a corporate that owes R20 million in unpaid e-toll accounts.

Mona is emphasising that “it’s not Sanral directly handing out the summonses but sheriffs who are acting on our behalf.”
Sanral is owed about R5 billion in e-toll bills.

Cosatu’s National Spokesperson Sizwe Pamla says Gauteng motorists are not going to be held liable or shoulder the responsibility for government’s decision to implement a policy which has been unanimously rejected by the overwhelming majority.

“Sanral will further waste taxpayer’s money to hire a bureaucratic workforce, to engage in this futile exercise of serving summons to the Gauteng motorists. This will strain the relations between the people and their government”.

Wayne Duvenage, the chairman of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), says SANRAL will be going after larger businesses before attempting to summons each and every motorist not paying e-tolls.

“The courts don’t have the capacity to issue a summons to each and every motorist not paying e-tolls, it’s impossible,”

“we know many businesses and individuals who have paid up and cancelled their agreements with Sanral, and by doing so, have joined the other 80 percent to 90 percent of the road users who are not paying.”

Duvenhage says OUTA believes there can be no consensus for e-toll defaulters, as there is no written agreement between the parties and adds that this is just a ‘scare tactic’ being used by SANRAL to force motorists to pay.

Twitter: @thedabhelia