Sanral’s future on the line if you don’t pay e-tolls: CEO
South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) CEO Skhumbuzo Macozoma has warned that the continued nonpayment of e-toll fees in Gauteng now poses a threat to the future of the agency at a national scale.
Macozoma was speaking alongside Rail Safety Regulator (RSR) CEO Nkululeko Poya at a Parliament’s portfolio committee on transport according to a report by BusinessDay.
Calling the non-payment of the tolls a “continued civil disobedience campaign”, Macozoma said that the poor collection numbers had already stalled a number of planned projects and upgrades around the country and had resulted in the agency revising its job-creation targets by over 10,000 people.
He also noted that the lack of income had made it next to impossible to set and achieve sustainable targets in its annual performance plans.
Macozoma further warned that if the agency continued to fail in meeting its collection targets, it could lead to further ratings downgrades and would likely postpone another bond issuance.
Should you pay?
Earlier this week Civil action group Outa noted that the summonses sent out to over 6,000 motorists for the non-payment of e-tolls have a number of irregularities that make them unlikely to pass legal muster – but warns motorists not to simply ignore them.
Ignoring the summons will lead to another default judgement against those implicated, as was seen in a recent case with a business owner in the south of Johannesburg, said Outa’s transport portfolio spokesperson, Ben Theron.
While Sanral claims that this default judgement sets a precedent against those who refuse to pay e-tolls, Outa insists that no precedent has been set outside the fact that, yes, you have have to go to court when you have been summoned.
Read: Sanral’s e-toll summonses aren’t legal – but don’t ignore them: Outa
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