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Johannesburg - After several months of negotiation, Sanral (South African National Roads Agency) have through their lawyers, finally agreed to suspend legal claims against members of the public who either already are, or will in future become Outa (Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse) members.
The agreed stay of legal claims is pending the completion of the test case process that started in June 2016, and which could realistically take more than two years to complete.
Wayne Duvenage, Outa chairman, says: “The agreement effectively grants the entire Outa member community immunity until the case is complete. Our aim is to show that e-tolling is unlawful in the test case, and should we succeed, the stay of legal claims will become permanent."
Refusing the larger public's inclusion
Sanral rejected Outa’s proposal to include the stay of persecution to public at large in this agreement. Only individuals and businesses who become members of Outa and opt to fall under Outas E-Toll Defence Umbrella (now or in future), will thereby fall under the agreement.
READ: Sanral vs Outa - 'Row bad for Gauteng drivers'
At the same time, Sanral have clearly indicated they intend to continue applying legal action and summonsing e-toll defaulters outside Outa’s membership base. All indications are that new rounds of summons are being issued by Sanral.
Duvenage adds: "One would imagine that Sanral would have halted their persecution of all E-Toll defaulters, until Outa’s test case had reached its conclusion. However, Sanral have clearly indicated they intend to continue summonsing e-toll defaulters and continuing legal action, regardless of this test case.
”More worrying for Sanral is the fact that all their summonses issued between March 2016 and mid-August 2016, were seriously erroneous and significantly flawed to the extent that we maintain these as being excipiable, ie their declarations do not conform to the rules of court.”
READ: Outa: E-toll exemption for the disabled good, process is 'cumbersome'
Until the authorities stop listening to Sanral’s nonsense and come to their senses by pulling the plug on the scheme, Outa will continue to fight for the rights of society and do what is necessary to halt the e-toll debacle.
