The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance will ask a court to prevent Sanral from collecting tolls until it grants an exemption for public transport operators.
|||Johannesburg - The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) will ask a court to prevent Sanral from collecting tolls until it grants an exemption for public transport operators.
Tolling is scheduled to be implemented on Gauteng highways from April 30. Outa's request for an interdict preventing toll collection from going ahead would be heard by the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.
The court application was launched last month, and Outa sought leave to file a supplementary affidavit in the matter on Saturday. The affidavit is from Leopold Pauwen, general manager of the SA Vehicle Renting and Leasing Association, a member of the Outa coalition.
The respondents in the case are the SA National Roads Agency Ltd (Sanral), Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele and Gauteng's roads and transport MEC Ismail Vadi.
In his affidavit, Pauwen noted Sanral had repeatedly stated its intention to exempt public transport from paying tolls. But no exemption had in fact been granted, he said.
Outa would also ask for the tariffs notice to be set aside, both on technical grounds and because the public had not been afforded opportunity to comment.
In addition, Outa objected to Sanral collecting tolls from a vehicle owner, when the person liable for the tolls was in fact the driver or user of the car, rather than the owner, Pauwen said.
In another affidavit by Pauwen, he argued Sanral had not disclosed the true cost of tolling to the court. He claimed Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan supported Outa's view that tolling was “inordinately expensive”.
Further, Sanral had admitted that environmental authorisations for the road upgrade had been obtained without proper consideration of the socio-economic impact of tolling, Pauwen said.
Neither Sanral, nor Ndebele, had been able to show why tolling should not be postponed, pending the court review, he said.
Outa also complained it had been prejudiced by the late filing of answering affidavits, as the court case would be heard on Tuesday. The answering affidavits had been filed only on Thursday and Friday last week.
Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum instructed its lawyers on Tuesday to urgently prepare court papers in an attempt to stop the e-toll launch.
“The public is asked to wait for the outcome of the proposed legal action of AfriForum and other groups, before deciding whether to register for e-toll at all,” AfriForum chief executive Kallie Kriel said.
Outa includes the Quadpara Association of SA, SA Tourism Service Association, and the SA National Consumers Union. - Sapa