The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) plans to defend any member of the public who is summonsed by the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) to pay their e-toll bills.

This comes at the back of the long-awaited decision, expected in February 2022, on whether the Gauteng government would scrap e-tolls.

Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage said it was still uncertain on whether motorists could expect an announcement on e-tolls in February.

“Far too often the Minister of Transport has indicated that an announcement was imminent and would happen, only to be told that the decision has been postponed.

“The minister’s credibility has been damaged when it comes to the e-toll decisions.”

Duvenage said, however, a decision had to be made by the time the budget speech was announced in February, as the government could not continue to extend the contract with Electronic Toll Collection (ETC).

“If a decision is not made in February, Outa will continue to raise this issue and place pressure on the state to make a decision.”

He said their decision to place pressure also meant that they would also defend any member of the public who was summonsed by Sanral to pay their e-toll bills.

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“The government cannot expect the public to pay their outstanding e-toll bills.”

R4.6-billion would be needed to cover Gauteng’s unpaid e-tolls.

“This system was unworkable and is fraught with unanswered questions related to corruption or maladministration. The public had every right not to pay these e-tolls and the state can’t expect them to pay at any time.”

The government has since over the past several years been working out the logistics and feasibility of scrapping the unpopular e-tolls in the Gauteng province, as considerations on all financial implications had to be taken into account.

According to a statement by transport minister Fikile Mbalula, a decision regarding the road-user pay system would be made next month.

The road-user pay system, which was implemented in December 2013, had been met with hostility by the public, refusing to pay.

This led to President Cyril Ramaphosa appointing a task team to resolve the impasse over e-tolls back in 2019.

Mbalula said the final decision on the matter was a “priority” for the cabinet.

“The final determination is about how best to carry the cost burden of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project while maintaining these roads in pristine condition,” Mbalula said.

“We agreed with the Minister of Finance that the announcement of the final decision will be made during the budget speech in February.”

Mbalula said he would announce the decision during his budget speech in March 2021 but that did not happen. Several other deadlines on this have been made and passed since 2019.