The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) said it has agreed with the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) that its 25 000 members will be immune from legal claims over the non-payment of e-tolls‚ pending the finalisation of a test case.
However‚ millions of other motorists are not covered by this arrangement between Sanral and Outa‚ and will still need to meet the agency in court.
In June‚ Sanral issued 6500 summonses to motorists for not paying e-tolls.
It is estimated that 2.5-million motorists are in default. Among those motorists‚ Outa had 152 members who received summonses.
Outa’s plea has been for the courts to hear a test case‚ or cases‚ to determine whether or not e-tolling was lawful.
Outa chairman Wayne Duvenage said that Sanral had‚ in a correspondence‚ agreed not to proceed with legal claims against Outa members until three test cases involving unpaid bills had been finalised.
This would ensure that the court system was not bogged down by thousands of cases which would clog the court system.
Duvenage said the agreement granted the entire Outa member community immunity until the test case is complete.
“Unfortunately‚ Sanral expressly rejected Outa’s proposal to include the stay of persecution to the public at large in this agreement.”
Comment from Sanral was not immediately available.
– TMG Digital
