The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI) has called on the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) to withdraw its proposal for special e-toll courts, saying such institutions will ultimately end up costing road users more.
SACCI CEO Neren Rau says the chamber is "concerned" by Sanral's proposal to the Department of Justice - a consideration that began in 2011 already, but only emerged recently as open road tolling in Gauteng nears its live date.
Rau says: "These structures will create an additional fiscal burden which road users will have to pay for and will duplicate existing judicial structures capable of handling these charges. The Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act already provides for road traffic offences."
The proposal for special courts for e-toll infringements, he says, speaks to the questionable efficiency of the entire system. Rau refers to what he says was Sanral's attempt to set up a "police force": "Earlier this year Sanral attempted to introduce a special Sanral police force with broad powers of arrest and property seizure, which would have been directly appointed by the Sanral CEO and not answerable to the normal democratic institutions that otherwise oversee conventional policing."
Rau says e-toll courts, should they be instituted, will be similar "as it duplicates existing legitimate methods for law enforcement, will cost additional money and the oversight will be questionable".
Sanral spokesperson Vusi Mona says the idea is for the courts to exist as part of the criminal justice system within SA's existing judicial system - but with a different focus. "The idea is to assign dedicated courts within existing facilities as opposed to creating new courts."
The roads agency believes setting up dedicated courts makes sense, due to the high violation rates expected at first - but denies the system will crumble due to non-compliance.
Mona says the decision on whether or not to set up e-toll courts ultimately rests with the justice department.
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