SANRAL distorts outcome of High Court judgment

I have noted SANRAL's media release in response to the ruling that was handed down in the Western Cape High Court yesterday.

SANRAL's statement about Judge Ashley Binns-Ward's judgment is misleading.

In contrast to what is being stated in their release, SANRAL did not achieve what they were looking for from the Western Cape High Court - an order that only a redacted version of the City of Cape Town's supplementary papers could be filed with the registrar, and thus part of the public record, whilst the full version of the supplementary papers would only be handed to the judge hearing the review matter. 

Their application, if granted, would effectively have removed crucial information about the impact of the proposed tolling from the public realm and would have meant the withholding of this information from the very people directly affected. 

The court dismissed their application and ordered that the ordinary, or ‘uniform', rules of court should apply. This means that the City will file its full supplementary papers with the court as any litigant would ordinarily do and that these papers will be part of the public record once the matter is called in court. 

The City of Cape Town is the only metropolitan local government in the country that has consistently achieved unqualified audits and which achieved a clean audit in the last financial year. We could not achieve these high levels of financial management and governance if we did not understand and implement sound procurement rules and processes. I can assure SANRAL's spokesperson that we definitely understand what it means to identify a preferred bidder within the procurement process.

What the statement fails to say is that the reason we applied and were granted the interdict last year, was because SANRAL gave notice to the City that it intended negotiating a contract with its preferred bidder, securing funds for the project and commencing some of the works that form part of the tolling project. 

SANRAL in fact alleged that there were works required on the N1 and N2 freeways that were urgent and they thus gave us 45 days' notice that they intended to advance the tolling project. It is disingenuous to now try to suggest that their procurement processes are at a much earlier stage. 

I believe the truth is that were it not for the interdict we were granted, the concessionaire contract would have been concluded by now and the tolling project would be a fait accompli that would be irreversible, regardless of whether our review application succeeded or not - much like what happened in Gauteng.

Statement issued by Councillor Brett Herron, Mayoral Committee Member: Transport for Cape Town, City of Cape Town, August 29 2014

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