Sanral says all e-tolls defaulters will be summoned to court

The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) has warned all Gauteng motorists that continue to defy the province’s e-tolls system: pay up or face the courts.

This ‘final’ warning comes in the wake of an announcement by Sanral, stating that it would be diverting R1.6 billion from its non-toll business to the toll road portfolio in order to keep the e-tolls system afloat. This means that Sanral’s 13 000 km of non-toll roads is now helping to pay for just 187 km of Gauteng’s e-toll roads.

Gauteng’s e-tolls, doomed from the start

Gauteng’s e-tolls system is effectively draining funds meant to maintain all roads in South Africa.

Sanral and Electronic Tolling Collections (ETC), the company contracted to collect e-tolls, have been left with a lemon. The e-tolls system is a monumental failure; the monolithic blue-lit gantries symbols of a crackpot idea which flouted valuable public consultation.

And despite there being talk of scrapping the loathed e-tolls, which brought cheers from Gauteng road users, Transport Minister, Blade Nzimande maintains that the system is staying put, simply because it’s unaffordable to remove.

This leaves all parties involved in the scheme in a bit of a conundrum. The e-tolls system can’t be removed, because it will cost too much money – government puts the figure somewhere around R67 billion. But, the tolling system, as a business model, has failed spectacularly – unable to keep itself afloat, it’s now costing South African taxpayers more and more money.

Sanral promises legal action against e-tolls defaulters

So, what can Sanral do to recoup its losses and get e-tolls back on the right track? Summon all defaulting motorists to court, of course.

In theory, this means that the majority of Gauteng motorists, who continue to default on payments of the tolls, which has led to an outstanding debt of almost R11 billion, can all expect to have their day in court.

This is according to Inge Mulder, Sanral’s chief financial officer, who spoke to 702 Talk Radio on the issues plaguing the e-tolls system. She said:

“It [court summons] is not selective. It was a slow start, but they are issuing the summonses in bulk and there is a huge amount of summonses going out and I think at last count I saw about 5,000 of them.”

Mulder warned that all motorists who still owe e-tolls can expect a court summons.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) has been vehemently opposed to the e-tolls system since its inception. In fact, this civil rights organisation is defending the majority of cases under its e-tolls defence umbrella.

Nzimande revealed that only 3,724 (24%) of the 15,505 summonses issued from in the last three years have actually been served on the defendants.

The minister also revealed that in the last two years, only R10.231 million was collected through legal processes, which cost ETC R4.6 million in legal fees. This pales in insignificance compared to the R11 billion owed by motorists.