Defaulters summonsed by Sanral will have ‘strong case’ for not paying

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) said it appears that the South African National Roads Agency Limited’s (Sanral) “latest round of threats” is targeting businesses that signed “agreements under duress of …threats of criminal prosecution”.

Sanral on Monday announced that sheriffs in different jurisdictions in Gauteng will “over the next few days” be delivering civil summonses to “road users who have persistently refused to settle their e-toll debt”.

These would be handed to individuals and “higher-value summonses of mostly companies”‚ the agency said.

“Sanral’s decision to tackle the high-value‚ corporate defaulters‚ on the basis of a civil charge‚ is questionable‚ in that this angle is generally one taken on disputes of a contractual nature‚” Outa responded later on Monday.

“It would appear then that companies and people who may therefore be at risk of a summons are those who have signed Sanral’s e-toll contracts in the past and have now defaulted on these.

“However‚ even in this situation‚ we know that many businesses would have initially signed these agreements under duress of Sanral’s initial threats of criminal prosecution and they will have a strong chance to defend their rights of ceasing to pay for the unjust e-toll scheme.”

The organisation said that Sanral’s “first threats of criminal summons…were put to bed when Sanral realised they had no basis for criminalising e-toll defaulters who’s case could be easily defended”.

Sanral’s statement on Monday stressed that a “civil summons…should not be confused with a criminal case”‚ and said the “decision to issue summonses comes at the end of an extensive period of communications” between itself and “vehicle owners who neglected to pay outstanding debts”.

“It is a natural conclusion to the process.”

The agency said that there had been ample warning‚ as since “the introduction of the 60% discount of e-toll debt in November 2015 Sanral has made it quite clear that it will also introduce a process of debt collection against serial defaulters”.

“Sanral has a responsibility towards the country and the thousands of compliant vehicle owners who regularly pay their e-toll accounts to recover the outstanding debt from defaulters‚” said the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project’s Alex van Niekerk.

But‚ Duvenage countered: “Outa believes there can be no consensus for e-toll defaulters‚ as there is no agreement between the parties and furthermore‚ if the road user considers the premise for Sanral’s one-sided agreement to be invalid due to the unlawful declaration of the roads as tolled roads‚ we fail to understand how Sanral can bring a civil claim against the road users.”