The South African National Roads Agency Limited and National Roads Act, 1998 (Act No. 7 of 1998)Chapter 5 : Official Policies on, and Declaration, Use and Protection of, National Roads46. Damaging of national road |
| (1) | Any person who damages a national road wilfully or negligently, is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a term of imprisonment not longer than one year, or a fine, or to both the term of imprisonment and the fine. |
| (2) |
| (a) | The court convicting a person of an offence contemplated in subsection (1) may, in addition to imposing a sentence on such a person, order that person to pay to the Agency an amount which, in the court’s opinion, is equal to the amount of the damage caused. |
| (b) | Such an order will have the force of a civil judgment and may be enforced in the same manner as a civil judgment. |
| (3) | The owners or occupiers of land adjoining any national road must— |
| (a) | take all measures on their land that are reasonably necessary to prevent the occurrence of any damage to the national road concerned, including any measures as prescribed from time to time for that purpose; |
| (b) | refrain from doing or permitting anything on or below the surface of that land which is likely to cause damage to that national road. |
| (4) | The owner or occupier of any land adjoining a national road will be liable for any damage to the national road which was or reasonably should have been foreseen and which could have been avoided had the owner or occupier taken measures in compliance with subsection (3)(a), or refrained in compliance with subsection (3)(b) from doing or permitting anything contemplated in the latter subsection. |
| (5) |
| (a) | For the purposes of ensuring compliance with subsection (3), the Agency by notice in writing may demand that the owner or occupier of any land adjoining a national road does the following to prevent the occurrence of any damage which, in the Agency’s opinion, is likely to be caused to a national road: |
| (i) | Takes on that land the measures, specified in the notice, within the period mentioned therein, or allows the Agency to take those measures itself; or |
| (ii) | forthwith stops doing or permitting anything particularly specified in the notice, at any place, on or below the surface of that land, specified in the notice. |
| (b) | The demand made in the notice may amongst others order the removal, filling in, alteration, relocation or establishment of any dam, canal, trench, wall, sluice, pipe, excavation, structure or other works, or the cessation of such an act, on the land. |
| (6) |
| (a) | If the owner or occupier of the land fails or refuses to comply with that notice, the Agency may apply to the High Court within whose area of jurisdiction that land is situated for an order directing the owner or occupier— |
| (i) | to take the measures specified in the notice, on that land, or to allow the Agency to do so itself; or |
| (ii) | (as the case may be) to stop doing or permitting the thing so specified at the specified place on that land. |
| (b) | The court may order that all or any of the measures demanded by the Agency or any other measures that the court considers fit, be taken by the owner or occupier, or, as the case may be, that the owner or occupier ceases doing or permitting all or any of the things complained of, if satisfied— |
| (i) | that due to the circumstances prevailing on the particular land, damage is likely to be caused to the national road in question; and |
| (ii) | that the damage to that national road is likely to be avoided by taking those measures or by ceasing to do or to permit those things. |
| (c) | The court may order either of the parties to bear the costs of complying with that order, depending on whatever may be fair and just in the circumstances, and may make any order as to the costs of the proceedings that it considers fit. |
| (7) | In any deserving case the Agency, in its discretion and without prejudice to any of its rights, may with the Minister’s approval pay the whole or any part of the costs incurred by the owner or occupier of land in complying with any notice issued under subsection (5). |