If it was me, as the first person to be prosecuted I must/would argue:
1) That the public consultation process was flawed and simply "window dressing". The public were not effectively consulted. I myself was never consulted. Only a referendum would have been truly fair. But the government has consistently refused that knowing that they would have lost.
2) That we have already paid enough in taxes towards road maintenance, including PAYE, VAT, Fuel Levy, Vehicle License fees and Driver License fees. We have been paying those taxes for years and the government deliberately diverted funds AWAY from road maintenance, intending all along to fall back on a Tolling system.
3) That I never received any invoices and SANRAL have no proof that any invoices were delivered to me.
4) That the tolling system violates the constitution as it restricts my right to free and open travel.
5) The the SANRAL act is flawed when it comes to prosecuting individuals under this tolling system as the SANRAL act had in mind a fixed gantry system with booms, not an open road tolling system. This tolling system should therefore fall under the AARTO jurisdiction which covers open road policing.
6) That by announcing that they were suspending tolling in other provinces, SANRAL has effectively restricted tolling to one province only - Gauteng and created and unconstitutional system whereby one segment of the population are treated differently from other citizens. This is also unconstitutional.
7) That this prosecution is unconstitutional as SANRAL have already gone on record as saying they were "choosing" "test cases" to prosecute. Any prosecutions therefore under this dispensation are unconstitutional as they amount to singling out individual members of the public based on arbitrary criteria. If all 1 Million have not paid their toll fees, then all 1 Million should be equal under the law. We are not willing to be their judicial guinea pigs.
8) The GFIP has been a failure. The roads are NOT improved and are not effectively policed. Portions of the GFIP had to be re-done, should be re-done due to faulty workmanship. Certain intersections are still problematic (e.g. Gilooleys), other intersections which were previously NOT problematic, now are problematic (e.g. Reading interchange). Traffic jams are still endemic problem. There is no effective policing on the highways, and road accidents result in an inordinate number of casualties (compared internationally) and often result in complete highway closures (despite their being six lanes).
