UK man receives E-toll account
A man living in the UK received an SMS, from Sanral, stating that he owes money for driving under gantrys.
According to John Snyders, the man’s friend, he has been living in the UK for the past two years.
“He still has his Vodacom number and received this threatening SMS,” says Snyders.
Vusi Mona, spokesperson for Sanral, says there could be a number of reasons why he has received such an SMS.
“This could be the result either oftransfer of ownership not having been done, or it could be a cloned vehicle.
“We urge such motorists to please report the incident in order for Sanral to investigate the matter,” adds Mona.
He says that if you receive an SMS message and have not used the Gauteng road network, then you should contact the call centre so they can check their records.
Wayne Duveangae, chairperson of Outa, says that this is exactly the kind of problems that arise from an administratively cumbersome system which relies on incorrect information.
“What this man and thousands of others who are not on these roads will do, is simply ignore the notices from Sanral and Sanral will in turn merrily continue to harass thousands of innocent people.
“It is not up to the owner of the cellphone to waste his time contacting and proving his innocence to Sanral,” adds Duvenage.
He says that the onus will be on Sanral to prove his use of the road.
“There will be many such incidents that Sanral will have to sift through before summonsing innocent people to court, and these will be cases they will lose.”
He adds that there is a saying: “Laws are only as good as they are governable”, and E-tolling is faced with massive governable challenges and for that reason, will fail to garner the support of the people.
