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OUTA to challenge court ruling regarding tolls

 
Akbar Ismail, Radio islam News – 2013-01-26

The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance, or Outa, will return to the court today when the High Court in Pretoria will hear an application to appeal against e-tolling. The organisation says that it remains committed to this case, which largely seeks to protect citizen's constitutional rights, along with challenging the onerous, expensive, inefficient and cumbersome matters related to the decision to toll Gauteng's freeways. The appeal follows a judgment on December 13 by the High Court in Pretoria, which dismissed Outa's application to have the electronic tolling of Gauteng's major roads scrapped. Radio Islam spoke to have Outa’s Wayne Duvenhage this morning to tell us more.

Wayne said that he believes the organisation has strong grounds on the question of weather another judge or court rule differently, and if that is the case, he believes that the same judge that that dismissed the case should grant the organisation leave to appeal the judgement on the 13th of December 2012. He added that this matter would then move to the Supreme Court in Bloemfontien. Outa also firmly believes that the tolling is illegal, and the the constitutional process that should have been followed, have not been followed, and that “society has been dealt a severe blow in this decision to toll,” Duvenhage said. The organisation is not opposed to paying for the new roads, however he is questions “why are we lumbered with an additional 1.5 billion rands collection costs? Why are there such inefficiency and burdens placed on society when there are far easier ways to collect this money?” He said that the contingency plan if Outa is denied the appeal is to petition the high court, giving reason why, “and hopefully that court can see those errors,” when they have to point them out. He continued that if their appeal is turned down at the high court, it might be the end of the road legally, however it should not be the end of the road from societies point of view. Wayne pointed out that we have seen tolling matters like this stopped around the world when societies expressed their disgust and not allowed this to go ahead by “passive resistance, by not buying the tags, by doing what they need to do as COSATU is, by blockading highways and so forth. He said that if the government does not consult with its people, and makes them angry, they will have this kind of behaviour. From Wayne’s point of view, he does not want this to happen where people take to the streets. Instead he told Radio Islam that he would rather want the courts to see the illegalities and rule that tolling is illegal, especially the way this has gone about.
Outa also said that the exorbitant costs order in the judgement on the 13th of December 2012 is easily defendable, citing that there are many precedents to assists them. He added that so far they have raised 8 million rands after appeals for funding, making this an extraordinary amount “for a public funded case in our new democracy.” However Outa said that they are looking for about 11.8 million rands as a target, while at they are just over 8, hence, they have 4 million rands to go, and they are already two thirds of the way there. Wayne also remarked that people have already donated their first months saving on the e-tolls as a gauge of what can be given towards the cause. He added that they are also seeing a big surge in contributions. Wayne pointed out that people can go to their website www.outa.co.za to contribute.

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