Free lawyer for first e-toll case

Johannesburg - Legal firm Findlay & Niemeyer Inc has offered to defend the first non-compliant e-toll road user as a test case, it said on Monday.

The offer followed the SA National Road Agency (Sanral) warning to motorists to pay within seven days of receiving e-toll bills or be handed over to debt collectors, the firm's senior partner John Price said in a statement.

"In defending the test case, we will act on a contingency basis in the sense that we will charge no fees to the client and call for no deposit," he said.

"The prospective test case client, and the basis of his or her complaint, would need to be carefully selected to ensure that the real toll road issues are put cogently before the court."

Transport Minister Dipuo Peters announced on Wednesday that e-tolling on Gauteng's highways would begin on December 3.

On Sunday, Sanral chief executive Nazir Alli said if debt collection failed the Criminal Procedure Act would come into effect and motorists would receive summons to that effect.