The City of Cape Town says it is astonished by the South African National Roads Agency’s (SANRAL) “irrational” decision to appeal the judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in the Winelands tolling matter (“Sanral’s tolling bid gets thrown out of court,” Northern News, September 28).
In a statement last week, Brett Herron, mayoral committee member for transport, said “wasting taxpayers’ money on another round of litigation in the Constitutional Court is highly irresponsible.”
The City said that after four years of legal battles against Sanral, its legal costs in the Winelands tolling matter stood at more than
R20 million. It said Sanral’s legal costs, and those of national departments involved in prior litigation, were not included in that amount.
“We have called on Sanral to refrain from wasting taxpayers’ money on further legal action after a full bench of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Bloemfontein unanimously ruled in our favour on 22 September 2016,” Mr Herron said.
“We asked Sanral at the time to finally concede that they followed an improper and unlawful process which, if it was left unopposed, would have resulted in Western Cape road users paying R62 billion in toll fees over a period of 30 years,” he said.
The City said it had learnt on Thursday October 13, that Sanral had filed an application for leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court.
“Sanral should rather work with the City to find a solution for the infrastructural upgrades that may be required for the N1 and N2 freeways, than wasting money on litigating in the Constitutional Court,” Mr Herron said.
