Pretoria High Court to decide fate of outstanding e-toll cases

Six years after the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) formally suspended efforts to collect e-toll debt, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) is seeking legal clarity from the Pretoria High Court.

Outa has filed an application asking the court to declare that Sanral has abandoned 2 028 e-toll debt claims due to its six years of inaction.

Sanral has filed notice of intention to oppose the case. No court date is yet set.

The other respondents are the ministers of Transport and Finance, the minister and director-general of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment and the commissioner of the South African Revenue Service (SARS).

No responses have been received so far regarding the actions these institutions will be taking regarding the pending court case.

Outa is also requesting that Sanral pay the legal costs associated with defending the claims, which have dragged on for years.

Fick argues that Sanral’s actions, or lack thereof, demonstrate a clear abandonment of the claims.

She argues that the agency effectively abandoned the cases after the entity’s board resolved in March 2019 to suspend the e-toll debt collection.

“The test case and the actions have been abandoned,” Fick asserted. “Sanral’s failure to withdraw the actions and tender the costs is unfair and prejudicial to Outa and the defendants, who are entitled to have certainty and obtain finality in the actions.”

Fick further elaborated on the difficulties faced by Outa and its clients. “The applicants have sought to engage with Sanral on numerous occasions to obtain finality by confirming the abandonment of the test case and the actions, and to recover legal costs, but it has avoided such engagement because of obvious financial consequences.”

Fick’s frustration highlights the prolonged legal limbo that Outa and its clients have been subjected to, as well as Sanral’s refusal to take responsibility for its inaction.

This case is the latest chapter in a long history of legal and political challenges to the e-toll system, which began in 2013 with the introduction of the tolling system to fund the R20-billion Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP).

Despite significant opposition from the public and organisations like Outa, Sanral pushed ahead with its tolling plans.

In the years that followed, Outa initiated various legal challenges, arguing that the system was unlawful.

These efforts were initially thwarted by courts, but the ongoing resistance continued, culminating in Outa’s E-Toll Defence Umbrella launched in 2015.

The legal action reached a critical turning point in 2017 when Outa initiated a test case aimed at challenging the constitutionality of the e-toll system.

This case was intended to address the broader issues surrounding the tolling scheme, but before it could be heard, Sanral suspended the collection of e-toll debt in March 2019, citing government intervention and ongoing discussions about resolving the payment impasse.

However, the agency never formally withdrew the claims, leaving those targeted by the e-tolls in a state of legal uncertainty.

In the years since the suspension, it has failed to take further action to resolve the e-toll debt claims, despite multiple attempts by Outa to engage with the agency.

Fick explained that this inaction has left the organisation and its clients in an unfair position.

If Outa succeeds, the court will not only put an end to the outstanding cases but will also potentially force Sanral to pay for the legal costs incurred by Outa in defending these claims.

Fick pointed out that this step would mark the end of a long and contentious chapter in the fight against e-tolls.

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