Sanral encourages motorists to register
Vusi Mona, spokesperson for Sanral, says motorists who are not registered for an E-tag, should pay their E-toll bills at the earliest opportunity.
“This is so they do not to lose the very real discounts that apply,” he says.
Mona adds that only the almost 1-million registered motorists, however, qualify for the monthly E-toll bill cap.
“When you register your vehicle and obtain an E-tag, you receive the benefit of a 48 per cent discount and other discounts such as time of day and frequent user discounts.
“In addition, the maximum amount that you can be charged for a Class A2 vehicle is R450 per month.”
Mona says, however, that non-registered users who pay before certain cut-off dates would receive discounts on their E-toll bills.
The fee collection process is divided into three stages:
n The seven-day grace period.
n The debt collection process by the Violations Processing Centre.
n The prosecution using the Criminal Procedure Act.
“The last stage kicks in after there has been no cooperation from the road user following Sanral’s final letter of demand,” says Mona.
He adds that getting an E-tag is the way to go.
“It is just the easier and cheaper way. If you’re not registered, pay within seven days and the discounts will kick in and you will not get an SMS reminders from Sanral,” he says.
Wayne Duvenage, Outa chairperson, says that they have been inundated with queries ever since the public began receiving the SMS notifications.
“In short, motorists are extremely angry about the treatment they are receiving from Sanral over the E-toll fiasco,” says Duvenage.
According to him, the international and local human rights principle of “prior, free informed consent” is at stake.
He adds that Outa has argued from the onset that the declaration of the relevant roads as tolled freeways was made without that principle having been honoured, and consequently, users of a public road are paying for something that they were never consulted about.
“The very fact that there is now such an overwhelming opposition is in itself evidence of that failure.”
He adds that this issue has become a fiasco and they are not achieving the number of E-tag penetration into vehicles.
“They have provided misleading information in the past on E-tag sales and we don’t believe their number and even at 1-m sales, these are not all in vehicles on these freeways, and this number falls far short of the 2.3-m avenue number of cars using the freeways each month.”
He says that it is an unworkable system and the sooner the authorities realise this, the better.
