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E-toll car licence link explored

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 21 May 2015
Gauteng's vehicle population of 11.5 million is the largest in SA.
Gauteng's vehicle population of 11.5 million is the largest in SA.

Justice Project SA (JPSA) has outlined the process - and likelihood of materialisation - behind government's announcement that motorists will be unable to renew their vehicle licences if e-toll fees are not paid up in full.

This comes after deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa announced yesterday that e-tolls would be linked to licence disc renewals, with motorists being given six months to pay all outstanding fees dating back to December 2013.

JPSA chairman Howard Dembovsky says, as things stand, this provision (along with all of the other changes announced around e-tolls on Wednesday) will first have to be put into draft regulation amendments and published for public comment. "Interested parties will then have 30 days from the time of publication of that government gazette to make written representations to the Department of Transport (DOT)."

Only when that process has been completed and transport minister Dipuo Peters has applied her mind to all of the submissions received, may she publish amended regulations and proclaim a commencement date, he adds.

Legally speaking

JPSA believes withholding licence discs for non-payment of e-tolls - while it may "sound easy enough" - may not pass constitutional muster. It would be tantamount to forcing a person who has paid licence fees but to whom a licence disc has been refused, to contravene the National Road Traffic Regulations by not displaying a current licence.

Even if the proposed amendment were to pass constitutional muster, Dembovsky says there is no guarantee that holding motorists to ransom by withholding a licence disc would have the desired effect of forcing people to pay their outstanding e-toll bills.

"In fact, quite the opposite is true and the possibility of a whole new industry of mass false licence disc production could become a very real possibility. Displaying a counterfeit licence disc is a serious criminal offence for which a person would be charged criminally and such counterfeit discs can be detected by the equipment at 'e-toll roadblocks'."

He notes, however, that not displaying a current licence disc is a minor infringement that results in a R250 fine, which is discounted by 50% if paid within 32 days. The consequence of not paying this fine could lead to an enforcement order being issued, thereby blocking licensing transactions against the person whose licence disc has already been refused, explains Dembovsky.

"In other words, that person would then not only have unpaid e-tolls and no licence disc, but would also have one or more unpaid traffic fines, which can currently proceed no further than an enforcement order and would therefore constitute no real further consequence.

"If this provision does go through and people dig their heels in, it may be found by the Gauteng Provincial Government and all licensing authorities in Gauteng that the tactic of withholding licence discs will have a profound negative impact on their own licensing income revenues."

Gauteng's vehicle population is the largest in SA, with 38.87% of the country's total vehicle population of 11 493 608 as at 31 March 2015. Dembovsky says the licensing fees generated in Gauteng are huge and, if people had to stop paying them, it would be a great revenue drain for the province and the DOT.

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