Sanral appeals Winelands toll plan ruling

Andres de Wet via Wikimedia Commons N1 Cape Town

City of Cape Town Councillor Brett Heron said in a statement that Sanral had launched an appeal against that judgment, and the city had defended its position. Judgment was reserved after Tuesday's argument.

Herron said the City's point was that according to the Sanral Act, only the Sanral board can declare a toll road, and the board allegedly did not do this. The board was also not given the information to do so, he said. The public's complaints and objections - which formed 99% of the comments - were not presented to the board either, he continued.

He added that although the national government can decide how road infrastructure is funded, Sanral must follow due process and act within the law. The City of Cape Town would take the issue to the Constitutional Court if necessary.

Comment from Sanral was not immediately available, but last September in a statement it said there had been speculation and misinformation about the funding model to be used on the project. Its Western Cape regional manager Kobus van der Walt said the initial cost of works would be R10bn, R2bn short of Sanral's total allocation per annum. "The notion that Sanral should fund this project from its own resources is, therefore, uninformed. This year we received a total allocation of R12.5bn to look after the entire national road network. Clearly, we cannot take all of it to do one project in one province."

Van der Walt also said the Western Cape is the only province that has permission from National Treasury to implement a fuel levy to finance roads, but it has not been implemented to date.

Source: News24

Read this report on News24Wire.com.