Don’t be fooled regarding e-toll infringements!
A Pretoria resident was told that he could not renew his car’s license disc because he had not settled his e-toll payments. The Automobile Association (AA) warns that this is not the case, not yet anyway. You can still renew your car’s license disc regardless of any e-toll infringements you may have accrued, however this may change in the future!
The AA were commenting on a report whereby Mr Anton Boswel was told that he had a warrant out for his arrest because of outstanding e-toll fees. It was later discovered that the reason for this was due to outstanding traffic fines rather than the outstanding e-toll fees.
The concern of the AA as well as Mr Boswel, is that traffic authorities are withholding license discs – claiming that people need to settle their e-toll accounts first.
“Regulations 25(7) and 59(2) of the National Road Traffic Act do not make provision for the withholding of licence discs for outstanding e-toll fees. Legislation that enables this action is still to be gazetted and we urge all motorists who have similar experiences to contact SANRAL immediately,” the AA said.
In June, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that a system whereby license discs could be withheld due to outstanding e-toll fees, is in the agenda. However this proposal has not yet been promulgated and can not be enforced in any way, until it has been.
So don’t let authorities fool you into not being able to renew your license disc! The Deputy President’s proposed system is a good few months (or perhaps even years) away from being implemented.