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False licence plate prosecution is not about etolls – JPSA

Newswires are ablaze this morning with a story that the first Gauteng motorist to be prosecuted for not paying etolls has appeared in court, but scaremongering headlines are neither accurate nor helpful says Howard Dembovsky of the Justice Project South Africa (JPSA).

JPSA has been one of the leading opponents of the etolls scheme since its inception, and Dembovsky says that while the case before the courts appears to be about charging a driver for not paying his bill, the truth is very different.

News emerged yesterday that a Johannesburg resident, Dr Stoyan Hristov Stoychev, was in front of the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court, charged with 1907 counts of wrongdoing. Some of which are related to the SANRAL Act which governs etolling. 903 of the charges, however, are based on allegations that Stoychev changed the licence plates and tax disc on his car. According to SAPA reports, Stoychev allegedly altered letters on his car number plate and hung false ones on with cable ties for easy removal.

“While it may be true that the charges against him also include charges in terms of the SANRAL Act, falsifying, deliberately obscuring and/or removing number plates from/on a motor vehicle is by no means a new crime and has been a criminal offence in terms of the National Road Traffic Act forever,” Dembovsky said in a media statement.

Dembovsky warns that Sanral is trying to create the impression that this case is an etolls prosecution, but in fact it is not.

“No person can “refuse” to pay something for which they have not been billed in the first place and in light of the fact that someone else was billed due to the falsification of number plates, it is safe to say that Dr Stoychev was never billed and therefore could not have ‘refused to pay e-tolls’,” he said.

In the same breath he mentions that what Stoychev did undermines the efforts of those who oppose the etoll system.

“Acting in a criminal manner, by removing, obscuring or falsifying number plates does not demonstrate the “civil courage” that has been talked about by those who oppose e-tolls. To the contrary, it demonstrates both, cowardice and a willingness to act like a criminal.”

Last month, SANRAL found its credit status downgraded by international agency Moodys on account of the outstanding number of etolls not collected.

[Source – Justice Project South Africa, Image – CC by 2.o/Axel Bührmann]

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