LISTEN | E-tolls are history but motorists must pay their outstanding debts

Gauteng motorists continue to be liable to pay their historic e-toll debts after the tolls are switched off in Gauteng on April 12.

How this will be enforced will be announced at a later date, Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi said at a media briefing in Centurion on Wednesday.

The briefing, co-hosted by transport minister Sindisiwe Chikunga and the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral), confirmed government’s earlier announcement that road users will no longer be charged for use of the controversial e-toll network from midnight on Thursday. E-tags will continue operating at conventional toll plazas on national toll roads as a more convenient way to navigate the gantries instead of stopping and paying with their card or cash.

E-toll gantries will be used as speed traps and for policing purposes such as finding stolen vehicles and identifying stolen and cloned number plates.

Chikunga acknowledged that the resistance to e-tolls by motorists and other stakeholders suggested government could have consulted widely and done things differently, but said it was “water under the bridge”.

She said the user-pay principle remains government policy and e-toll debt will not be written off. However, the question of recovering the debt is a sticky one that requires further discussion.

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The controversial scheme has been boycotted by most motorists since its introduction in December 2013, with only about 10% to 12% of road users in Gauteng paying for them.

The National Treasury has agreed to pay 70% of the R42bn debt for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project with the Gauteng government to pay the remaining 30%.

“The payment and enforcement of debt is not an easy thing, and we will hold consultations on this. There are a lot of things to be discussed, and then an announcement will be made,” Lesufi said.

He insisted he did not say motorists who had paid e-tolls would be refunded, as he was quoted in January 2023.

“My statement was misrepresented. In an interview I said we were in negotiations on the scrapping of e-tolls, and refunding motorists was part of the discussions,” he said in Wednesday’s briefing.

Last week the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), one of the most vocal critics against e-tolls, said motorists are likely to get away with not paying a cent. This is because paying e-toll bills was never legislated, Outa CEO Wayne Duvenhage told TimesLIVE.

“Sanral has no mechanism to force you to pay, which is why it failed with the e-tolls and they are closing it down. If you haven’t paid, the chances of them coming after you for that debt are slim to zero.”