OUTA stands by statement - e-toll test case agreed to by SANRAL

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) stands by its statement that SANRAL’s lawyers have agreed with OUTA’s lawyers to have a test case process proceed on e-toll summonses and that all of its supporters who have been summonsed to date, or may be summonsed in the future for the non-payment of e-tolls, will have their cases stayed until the outcome of the court process.

“There is no confusion here and if Vusi Mona denies this, he needs to get the facts from Werksmans who are representing them on this matter. The fact is that SANRAL’s legal team has agreed with OUTA’s lawyers to a test case process,” says Wayne Duvenage, OUTA’s Chairperson. “SANRAL do not know who OUTA’s supporters are, so the process agreed to is that as and when an OUTA supporter is summonsed by SANRAL, the OUTA supporter will notify us of their summons receipt and our lawyers in turn will notify SANRAL’s lawyers. We receive queries and questions on a daily basis from the public and the media on the e-toll matter. Thus we felt it necessary to reveal this recent development to the media on this very important public interest matter.”

At this stage of the legal process, OUTA and SANRAL’s respective legal teams are thrashing out the details and information required in SANRAL’s declarations, in order to ensure this case can begin. Once we have agreed to these matters, which in itself may become a legal case within a case, only then can we move on to the next stage, which will see the development of the pleas and affidavits that will eventually be heard in court. Unfortunately, these matters take a while to go through the normal court process and it is not our desire or strategy to drag this matter out. This is unfortunately the grind of the legal process in South Africa.

We find it amusing that Vusi Mona describes our statement as a supportership drive exercise. Our supportership base, which consists of tens of thousands of individuals, families and businesses, is growing every day, as is our litigation war chest, which has sufficient funds and projections to see the e-toll case through the end. Our supporters are happy to support us, and many do so, not only for the benefit of being defended on the e-toll matter, but also for the work we are doing to challenge corruption and maladministration within other State Owned Entities.

“The fact that SANRAL continues to persecute the public on the e-toll matter and do not take our advice to pull the plug on the scheme, or at least halt all summonses to the public until the test case has been resolved, is without doubt one of the reasons that OUTA’s supportership continues to grow,” says Duvenage. “In fact, if we were an organization with sales representatives working to drive supportership growth, we would nominate Vusi Mona as our Sales Rep of the Year.”

We take this matter seriously and have every right to share the facts with the public. Our supporters are happy with the work we do and we remain determined to fight the e-toll matter, along with other matters we take up to fight tax abuse and corruption, through to the end.