The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (OUTA) on Thursday urged South Africans to be active and submit inputs on proposed changes to the e-toll regulations to the Department of Transport.

The department released the Publication of the National Road Traffic Regulations in Gazette # 39130 requesting the public to comment on proposed changes to the e-toll regulations by September 26.

“This gazette seeks to introduce a number of changes to the e-toll regulations‚ some of which are sincerely concerning‚” OUTA said.

“In order to make it easy for the public to comment‚ OUTA has introduced a summary of the pertinent issues in the gazette‚ as well as a copy of their submission to the Department of Transport and are encouraging the public to participate in making submissions on these proposed changes‚” the alliance said.

“We know that life can be hectic and your time is limited. Therefore‚ OUTA has set up a page on their web site at http://www.outa.co.za/site/?p=2038 ‚ which makes it easy for the public to submit comments on the main issues (and more)‚ in response to this gazette.

“It is important to know that the more that public participate in making such submissions‚ the stronger the people’s case to be heard.”

OUTA chairperson‚ Wayne Duvenage‚ said‚ “We urge South African citizens to be active on this matter and submit their input to the Department of Transport by the 26th September 2015.”

“Should a sizable volume of public submissions take place‚ it becomes difficult for government to simply forge ahead with their proposed changes‚” OUTA said.

One of the proposed changes to the legislation is that SANRAL aims to no longer be required to send members of the public any invoices before they become liable for e-toll payments — the onus will now be on members of the public to go to the SANRAL website or to their customer service centres to see if they have any outstanding invoices.

“This applies even if you live out of town and don’t have reliable internet access. This could mean that the first correspondences you do receive from SANRAL will be a criminal summons for non-payment‚” OUTA said in an earlier statement.