City to appeal judgment in SANRAL secrecy application

The City of Cape Town, after carefully studying the judgment in SANRAL's and the PPC's secrecy applications, has decided to apply for leave to appeal. Read more below:

The City has been advised that an appeal against the order that was granted by Judge Ashley Binns-Ward of the Western Cape High Court on 28 August 2014 has a reasonable chance of success and, as such, we have given notice of our intention to apply for leave to appeal.

Regardless of the fact that the City succeeded in its opposition to the applications of the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) and the Protea Parkway Consortium (PPC), the City still cannot file its supplementary papers in an open court because of the nature of the relief the court gave to SANRAL.

As such, the City is prevented from placing in the public domain information which is of great public interest and importance with regard to the proposed tolling of the N1 and N2 freeways until the review application is heard. The court order covers parts of the information to which neither SANRAL nor the PPC had claimed any prohibition on publication.

The court order in effect seals, until the hearing of the review, not only the supplementary papers, but also any response to them in answering affidavits and any reply on those issues in the replying affidavits. In fact, it prohibits the publication of the most significant parts of the City's supplementary papers - the toll fees, the total expected revenue, the proportion of the profits, the underestimate of construction costs, and the cost-benefit ratio.

The City's supplementary papers include a number of affidavits by experts who have based their reports on information derived from the administrative record (information) provided by SANRAL. After careful consideration of the judgment, the City has come to the conclusion that it is not clear at all whether we may make public these opinions, or whether we may be in contempt of court should we do so.

The City is committed to a properly informed public debate about the desirability of the tolling project and we are committed to open justice, accountability and freedom of expression; therefore we are going ahead with our endeavour to fully disclose all of the information related to this project.

Statement issued by Councillor Brett Herron, Mayoral Committee Member: Transport for Cape Town, City of Cape Town, September 19 2014

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