The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) says it will take necessary action against the South African National Roads Agency's (Sanral's) latest e-toll debt collection process.
Outa chairperson Wayne Duvenage says ITC Business Administrators, which is acting under instruction from either Sanral or Electronic Tolling Collection, will have to answer to the Council of Debt Collectors regarding the method it is using to recover outstanding e-toll money from motorists.
ITC Business Administrators has been contracted to drive Sanral's latest e-toll debt collection process, which includes sending thousands of threatening SMSes to motorists, says Duvenage.
On its Web site, ITC Business Administrators is described as the pre-eminent provider of arrears debt management and collection services in SA.
This method of recovery of public money is equal to harassment and is in contravention of the debt collector's code of conduct, says Outa. "We see this as a serious transgression of the debt collection regulations."
"These bully-boy tactics and misinformation by Sanral and its collection processes is nothing new," says Duvenage.
He adds: "They did the same in 2014 and failed to coerce enough people to take up their e-tag offers. Now it's happening again, only this time around, two years after the e-toll scheme's launch, the unpaid e-toll 'ring-fenced' debt amounts to almost R6 billion. They are now three months into their new dispensation and we estimate that less than 5% of the e-toll defaulters have taken up their 60% discount offer to settle the outstanding debt."
According to Outa, the recipients of these SMSes are not contracted to Sanral and they have no right to be inundated with messages of this nature, without them having given consent to do so and without an opt-out option.
"We reiterate that this conduct is 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.'"
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