The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) has rubbished reports that it had reached a legal agreement with the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), giving Outa members immunity to legal action for non-payment of e-tolls.
The roads agency has labelled Outa’s claim as nothing more than a fundraising exercise.
Sanral spokesperson, Vusi Mona has however confirmed that the legal teams of the agency and Outa are in discussions about a test case process on e-toll summonses. Sanral has indicated that they agree in principle to such a process, but an agreement can only be reached once Outa sets out its legal defences which it intends to raise in a collateral review. “This will only occur once Outa has pleaded to one of the matters, which it has not yet done,” said Mona.
Sanral has stated that a test case will lessen the burden on the courts, costs for all parties and set a legal precedent that will assist in all the other matters where similar legal arguments will follow.
“Going to the media with a statement that an agreement exists, is a clear misrepresentation as there has been no final agreement in this regard. In particular, there is no agreement whatsoever that Outa members will be immune from legal action. Outa’s statement coincides with their drive for late membership applications,” said Mona.
Meanwhile, Outa stands by its statement that Sanral’s lawyers have agreed with their lawyers to have a test case process on e-toll summonses and that all of its members who have been summoned to date, or may be summoned in the future for the non-payment of e-tolls, will have their cases stayed until the outcome of the court process.
Read also: Outa puts brakes on e-toll claims for their members
“There is no confusion here and if Vusi Mona denies this, he needs to get the facts from Werksmans who are representing them on this matter. The fact is that Sanral’s legal team has agreed with Outa’s lawyers to a test case process,” said chairperson of Outa, Wayne Duvenage.
“Sanral do not know who Outa’s members are, so the process agreed to is that as and when an Outa member is summoned by Sanral, the Outa member will notify us of their summons receipt and our lawyers, in turn, will notify Sanral’s lawyers. “We receive queries and questions on a daily basis from the public and the media on the e-toll matter. Thus we felt it necessary to reveal this recent development to the media on this very important public interest matter,” Duvenage said.
Read also: Outa out to nail Sanral
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