A few days ago the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) was on the brink of dropping its court case against the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) due to lack of funds to pay for attorneys.

Sanral wants to implement e-tolls on Gauteng freeways and Outa is against this. Last year Outa lodged a court application to halt the launch of e-tolls. Funds to pay for attorneys leading Outa’s case come from donations by businesses, organisations and individuals.

Last week it was reported that Outa was in arrears of R3 million and needed to raise attorneys’ fees of R1 million before the 21st of June in order to be able to proceed with its case. After Outa chairperson Wayne Duvenage appealed to the public for donations in a press conference on Wednesday, a whopping R2.35-million was raised in less than a week.

The public donated R1.35 million. The other R1 million came from the Democratic Alliance (DA). This clearly shows that there are many people who are against the implementation of e-tolls on Gauteng highways. Duvenange said the donations they received exceeded their expectations. “We certainly did not expect this significant answer to our call and want to thank each and every person and organisation that took the time to contribute. The DA’s injection was a huge and significant boost for us,” he said.