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UPDATE: This article has been updated to reflect that according to the national roads agency Sanral it received over 700 000 actual inquiries via inbound calls and its website about its 60% discount offer on e-toll debt. Sanral pointed out that the 37 000 Fin24 quoted as inquiries received from motorists about the discount offer referred to those road users who collections agency ETC could not get back to or who tried to log on to the less60 percent website but could not transact.
In a request for correction, Sanral said it would appreciate a correction, as "the figure accurately reflects the increasing number of road users who are interested in taking advantage of the 60% discount offer on historical debt – as opposed to flawed and deliberately misleading assertions made by Outa that the system has collapsed."
Cape Town - All its research and evidence indicates the public is defying Gauteng's controversial e-toll system as a matter of principle and not purely for financial reasons, said the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa).
The civil rights body said in a statement that after motorists largely rejected the offer of a 60% discount by the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral), it is not at all surprised that the agency has been "forced" to extend the grace period by a further 10 days "in an attempt to claw back a bit more of the R5.9bn discounted e-toll debt".
This comes after Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters granted an additional 10 working days' extension for road users to take advantage of the 60% e-toll discount in May 2016, with the discount period now ending on May 17.
According to the Transport Department, the reason for this was because of a "last-minute rush leading up to May 2 - the date on which the 60% discount expired - leaving thousands of road users outside the window period".
Sanral said it received over 700 000 inquiries from motorists about the discount offer.
"Motorists have two options: to settle the debt by May 17, or make an arrangement to pay over a period," warned the department.
READ: E-toll discount extended: Are you more likely to pay-up?
Said Outa: "Sanral’s recent legal summonsing of a few handpicked e-toll defaulters is an attempt to spook the public into taking advantage of the dispensation's deadline extension, while in reality the scheme has been shunned and the uptake has been far too low to convert it to a sustainable one."
Outa chair Wayne Duvenage added: "We are moved by the incredible support we have received and the fact that the majority of motorists still continue to defy the scheme... we are encouraged by the amount of organisations and citizens outside our membership base who are choosing to defend themselves against the summons."
Without a change of heart, absolute transparency and "a discontinuation of incessant misleading information", the public has every reason to disbelieve and distrust Sanral "whose leadership is on record in the courts and media as providing false information to the public", said Outa.
The organisation vowed to continue offering full legal defence of its members who are summonsed for the non-payment of e-tolls.
