Etolls legal battles far from over – OUTA

UPDATE: 20 November 11.15 am:

“It is not a legal requirement to have an e-tolls tag. You do not have to get a tag. There are hundreds of thousands that refuse to pay for the use of roads,” he said.

“If Sanral believes they can manage this process they have another thing coming. “He said one should imagine what would happen if 10% of the road users, for example, do not pay their bills.

“How will the courts cope? And you can’t punish selectively,” he said. “The whole thing should be brought to a halt, government should find a publically acceptable way to fund the roads,” he said. “The legal challenges are by far nowhere near over.”

He said Outa is not against the roads, but feels the government should find the best way to fund them.
“Needing R1.5bn to administer the system makes it an absolute farce,” he said.

Zwelinzima Vavi echoed this sentiment saying: “Our call to everybody is: Let’s resist. Let’s unite. Let’s refuse to pay. Let’s see if government has capacity.”

Meanwhile Nazir Alli, CEO of the South African National Roads Agency stated that SANRAL would not be any law enforcement on the roads. “That is up to the Authorities.”

20 November, 11am:

The start date for the controversial Etolling system was announced by the Department of Transport at a press briefing on Wednesday morning.

Despite fierce resistance to Gauteng’s e-tolling system,the system will go live on 3 December.

Furthermore, more gantries are expected to be erected in the province, the Democratic Alliance said.

Mmusi Maimane, Democratic Alliance provincial spokesperson said the existing gantries were only the first phase of e-tolling, adding that SA National Roads Agency planned to put up more gantries and extend e-tolling.

Maimane said, “It is expected that at least 300km of the province’s highways will be tolled in Phase 2 of the project. It is likely that this will be pushed through in the same manner as the existing phase without proper consultation and at great expense.”

Maimane assured the public that his party would continue its fight against e-tolling and encouraged them to exercise their vote in the coming election against the user-pay system.

“I encourage everyone to take their opposition to the ballot box next year and vote out the government that is bringing you e-tolling,” he said.

Earlier in November, the Democratic Alliance announced that it was taking legal action to challenge the constitutionality of the e-tolling.

This came after Opposition To Urban Tolling Alliance gave up on its legal battle against e-tolling.

Meanwhile, Cosatu, the Economic Freedom Fighters and the Freedom Front + have protested and handed over memorandums against e-tolling.