“We have noted your refusal to pay your outstanding etoll balance. Your vehicle details are being submitted for listing, and legal action will commence with costs incurred.”

If you’ve received the above SMS from Sanral it’s likely your heart caught in your throat. In which case, we have some good news.

Outa, the activism group formerly known as the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance, believes that those SMSes are illegal on quite a few counts.

The group did some investigating, and found that the employees who take the calls on the number listed say that they work for Sanral, but in actual fact work for ITC Business Administrators.

Outa also takes umbrage with the wording of the SMS, as it has a threatening tone by including the words “will commence” when referring to legal action.

Outa points out that:

• The call centre agent taking the calls at the number listed (087 353 1490) indicated that they are employed by SANRAL, when in actual fact, they are employed by ITC Business Administrators, who are a private registered debt collection agent acting on behalf of SANRAL. OUTA then determined that each agent questioned is actually registered as a debt collector employed by debt collection agency ITC Business Administrators (Pty) Ltd.

• Furthermore, the calls are all answered as “Sanral Violations Centre”, which strictly speaking they aren’t.

• What makes matters worse, is that these SMS messages contain a direct threat of definite (“will”) legal action.

Outa highlights that the points above are in contravention of rule 5.3(b) of the Debt Collectors Code of Conduct, which reads: “In collecting or attempting to collect a claim a debt collector shall not: misrepresent the true nature of his or her business, or threaten to institute legal proceedings, whether civil or criminal, if there is no intention to carry out such a threat.”

“Unless Sanral are prepared to follow through with this threat, they may not send these messages. Furthermore, the Minister of Transport is on record in July 2014, saying that criminal action cannot proceed against e-toll defaulters,”explained Ivan Herselman, the Director of Legal Affairs at Outa.

“In addition, the regulatory environment is not in place to enable or enforce non-payment of e-tolls through legal action.  This is gross misconduct as per the Debt Collection Act and its regulations.”

This is not the first time that Sanral has come under fire for sending out SMSes that irked Outa. In January it had an issue with SMSes sent to Gauteng motorists reminding them to pay their bills, and the possibility of legal action should they fail to do so.