SANRAL bid to introduce belated evidence in Winelands tolling case dismissed

The City of Cape Town opposed SANRAL's leave to file four additional affidavits - two of which are from Andrew Robert Donaldson and Dennis Skhumbuzo Macozoma, former members of the SANRAL Board.

Desicion about toll roads unclear

The affidavits seek to imply that the SANRAL Board considered and approved the decision to declare the N1 and N2 freeways as toll roads. SANRAL, however, has failed to produce any evidence, either through minutes of board meetings or otherwise, that such a decision was indeed taken. In fact, it is the City's view - and the City will argue as such - that this decision was taken solely by Nazir Alli, chief executive officer of SANRAL, and not by the SANRAL Board, as is required by the SANRAL Act.

SANRAL well understood the significance of the lack of a Board decision in this regard as in April 2014 Alli circulated a memorandum to Board members, stating that: 'The purpose of this memorandum is to ask the board to resolve that the N1, Bellville (R300 interchange) to Sandhills and the N2, Swartklip (R300 interchange to Botriver) be declared as toll roads. This element in the procedures to declare the road as a toll road was inadvertently omitted in the process to declare the above roads as toll roads'.

In court, the City argued that the filing of the affidavits was too late in the proceedings as all of the other affidavits and heads of argument have already been filed; that the belated application brought by SANRAL on 17 July 2015 was not proper; that SANRAL could give no credible explanation for the delay; and that it was clearly aimed at rescuing their case when the flaws in actions are exposed.

SANRAL's application dismissed

Judges Binns-Ward and Boqwana of the Western Cape High Court dismissed SANRAL's application.

In 2013 the City approached the courts to compel SANRAL to provide it with the records of its decision making regarding the proposed Winelands Tolling Project. SANRAL, however, had failed to provide the City with a resolution by the Board or relevant Board documents, in either in the Rule 53 record or in response to the Western Cape High Court's disclosure order. SANRAL has since admitted that there is no Board resolution.

The Western Cape High Court will hear the review application on Tuesday 11 August 2015. The City is confident that the Court will find that SANRAL acted unlawfully in declaring the N1 and N2 as toll roads.

Statement by the City's Mayoral Committee member: Transport for Cape Town, councillor Brett Herron