The Department of Transport has gazetted amendments to the National Road Traffic regulations which deal with the withholding of licence discs when there are e-tolls outstanding on a vehicle.<\/p>\n
Justice Project South Africa (JPSA) said it took note of the proposed amendments ‘with some alarm and disbelief’ as it could not find a particular ‘regulation 11’ anywhere.<\/p>\n
According to the JPSA, the proposals were gazetted on 17 July 2015 in Government Gazette 38997, and refer to a \u201cregulation 11 of the e-Road Regulations, 2015\u201d.<\/p>\n
It highlighted the following wording in the proposed amendments.<\/p>\n
Regulation 25 of the Regulations is hereby amended by the addition of the following paragraph after paragraph (h) of subregulation (1): (i) the owner of which has failed to comply with the requirements of the e-Road Regulations, 2015 published under section 58(1)(dA) and (dC) of the South African National Roads Agency Limited and National Roads Act, 1998 (Act No. 7 of 1998) for the payment of tolls where the South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited has applied a mark in terms of regulation 11 of those e-Road Regulations to the effect that the owner of the vehicle has outstanding tolls in respect of the vehicle concerned.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
“According to our records, the last time that e-Road Regulations were published was in Notice No. R. 739 contained in government gazette No. 36911 of 9 October 2013. The short title of the said Regulations was ‘the e-Road Regulations, 2013’,” the JPSA said.<\/p>\n
Howard Dembovsky, JPSA national chairman, said that any proposed amendments to the e-Road regulations should have been published for public\/stakeholder comment and at least 30 days should have been made available for comments to be submitted.<\/p>\n
“It is difficult, if not entirely impossible to believe that absolutely everyone we know would have failed to submit comments on such a serious matter and therefore we hold significant doubt that any such amendments to the e-Road regulations under the SANRAL Act would have escaped anyone\u2019s, least of all our and the media’s attention.”<\/p>\n
Those who are interested in commenting on the proposed regulations have two weeks within which to do so, with a deadline set for August 14.<\/p>\n
The e-mail addresses, postal addresses, and phone numbers to lodge objections, inputs, or comments to can be found in the notice on the South African government\u2019s website<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n
More on e-tolls<\/h3>\n
New e-tolls, car licences and your rights<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
E-tolls designed to protect the poor: Ramaphosa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n