{"id":755169,"date":"2024-02-26T15:45:37","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T13:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=755169"},"modified":"2024-02-26T15:56:03","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T13:56:03","slug":"collecting-outstanding-e-toll-bills-wont-happen-without-a-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/755169\/collecting-outstanding-e-toll-bills-wont-happen-without-a-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Collecting outstanding e-toll bills – not without a fight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Civil action group, Outa, has called out the Gauteng provincial government for creating even more confusion around e-tolls and what is to be done with any outstanding bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to a Moneyweb interview<\/strong><\/a> with deputy director-general of public finance at National Treasury Mampho Modise this week, Outa accused the government of being indecisive and incapable of implementing its own policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the interview, Modise was quoted saying that “Gauteng has agreed that (the outstanding e-toll) debt should and will be collected”. This was referring specifically to the debts owed by motorists, according to the publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outa said that Modise’s comments made no sense, given that any debt held by motorists would have to be collected by road agency Sanral – a national competency – and not the Gauteng provincial government, which is now in charge of paying the balance of the debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat makes the threat of going after those with outstanding e-toll debts even more confusing is that Sanral stopped issuing summonses against e-toll defaulters in 2019, and most of this debt has now prescribed<\/strong>,\u201d said Wayne Duvenage, Outa\u2019s CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finance minister Enoch Godongwana announced the end of e-tolls in November 2022, with the national government covering 70% of the debt owed in the system and leaving the Gauteng provincial government in charge of covering the remaining 30%, equating to over R12 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2023, Gauteng\u2019s Premier, Panyaza Lesufi, made headlines by stating that R6.9 billion paid in e-toll bills would be refunded to those who had paid e-tolls. Lesufi later backtracked on this and denied saying it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his latest 2024 State of the Province Address, Lesufi announced that e-tolls will be switched off by 31 March. He also said the Gauteng provincial government has agreed to pay R12 billion towards Sanral\u2019s e-toll debt to finalise the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are left more confused than ever by the latest announcement by Modise,” Duvenage said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBetween Sanral, Premier Lesufi, Minister Godongwana and the Department of Transport, it seems that nobody knows what is really going on when it comes to finalising the e-toll debacle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the government does try to go after motorists again for the outstanding debt, Duvenage said Outa still has a standing test case on the constitutionality of e-tolls, which was “placed on hold” when Sanral’s board passed a resolution to stop e-toll summonses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should it meet the requirements, he said that Outa will defend motorists against such collections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will not merely accept the government\u2019s irrational plan to collect debt on their inefficient, costly and largely unworkable system – especially since they themselves announced that e-tolls will be cancelled,\u201d Duvenage said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Lesufi announced the \u201cswitch off\u201d of e-tolls on 31 March 2024, this cannot be formally done until the regulations enabling the system have been repealed and the related laws unwound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read: The official end of e-tolls is in sight<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Civil action group Outa says that the government is creating even more confusion around the shutting down of e-tolls in Gauteng – but it is ready to push back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":709474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-755169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755169"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":755187,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755169\/revisions\/755187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}