E-tolls: Are you lawfully entitled to a refund?

Eight months after it was scrapped, some motorists are still being billed for E-tolls, while experts say you are lawfully due a refund.

Back in October 2022, it was announced that the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project would no longer pursue the controversial E-tolls collection system to finance the Sanral freeway upgrades.

The scheme officially shut down on 31 December 2022, prompting a series of reports about what would become of the now defunct E-tolls gantries.

Similarly, there was conflicting information regarding payment of existing and outstanding toll fees and whether motorists where in fact entitled to a refund.

Now TopAuto has reported that a number of companies and individuals are still being billed for E-tolls five-months on and they are exploring legal recourse.

WHAT NEXT FOR E-TOLLS GANTRIES?

Sanral says it is in discussion with a joint committee made up of the Department of Transport, National Treasury and Gauteng provincial government. The goal is to investigate how to repurpose the existing e-tolls infrastructure.

“As part of the task team, Sanral has yet to receive an instruction from the joint committee of the political principals, firmly indicating the way forward,” said Sanral.

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It is understood that a tender for contractors to oversee the operation and maintenance of Gauteng’s road infrastructure went out recently. On the to-do list was data monetisation, ticketing, speed-over-distance law enforcement, weigh-in enforcement and SAPS assistance with crime intelligence.

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All the while, many individuals and companies continue to pay for the defunct scheme. It is understood there is a decision pending on whether motorists who co-opted the system and paid their E-tolls diligently are actually entitled to a refund.

PAY OR GET PAID

Sadly, legal experts say Sanral does not have the power to retrospectively excuse the nonpayment of e-tolls once incurred and that the proposed course of writing off outstanding e-tolls debt is unlawful.

So, the long and short of it is refunds are out of the question and any outstanding debts with Sanral must be settled. The question – as has been the case with E-tolls from day one – is whether Sanral will be able to enforce the payment of outstanding bills by defaulters.

We will keep an eye on this story as it develops.