People who don't pay their e-tolls could ultimately have their licences suspended, the DA has warned. According to Eyewitness News (EWN), this is a possibility once the Administrative Adjunction of Road Traffic Offences Act (Aarto) comes into effect.
The DA reportedly says that in terms of the new act, not paying e-tolls will count as disobeying a road sign. A driver who passes 12 gantries with an e-toll sign could lose 12 points in a day, and have their licence suspended for a year, hypothetically.
"It would be an interesting legal case to test; we will get a legal opinion on it," the DA's Fred Nel told the news site.
At the end of February, Gauteng premier David Makhura said e-tolls had not worked. According to IOL, Sanral's own figures for 2017 show that the compliance rate for e-tolls is 29 percent, four years after the system was implemented.
"The new dawn must also bring a solution to the protracted and unresolved problem of e-tolls", Makhura reportedly said.
The Organisation for Undoing Tax Abuses (Outa) told IOL that Sanral will never be able to catch up with collecting outstanding e-toll fees.
"The collection costs and litigation costs are too high when measured against the revenue generated by e-tolls," the organisation said.
Despite this, Sanral is threatening non-complying motorists with legal action, according to the Pretoria East Rekord – Sanral said this week that it will "continue to use all instruments at its disposal to recover money due to it", including civil prosecutions.