Cape Town - The City of Cape Town on Friday denied giving Sanral an undertaking to keep proposed tariffs on the contested N1 and N2 highway tolls confidential until a tender to operate it had been awarded.
It was reacting to reports that SA National Roads Agency Limited chief executive Nazir Alli this week accused it of reneging on a pledge to keep tariffs and the revenue to be earned by the operator confidential.
“The city never gave such an undertaking and the city has not reneged on the undertakings that it has given,” city mayoral committee member for transport Brett Herron said.
Instead, Herron said, the city's legal representatives agreed to keep information obtained from the bid documents confidential as an interim measure.
“This allowed them to draft supplementary founding papers in the city's review of Sanral's decision to toll the N1 and N2 highways. The city's supplementary founding papers contain details of the toll project, including its cost.”
Herron accused Sanral spokesman Vusi Mona of making comments about the cost of the project, pending the outcome of the road agency's application to the Western Cape High Court to prevent the city's court submissions being made public.
“Mr Mona said that 'Sanral's allocation from the fiscus is about R10 billion per annum for the entire national network and the N1/N2 Winelands project requires just about that amount',” he said.
“All that the city may say publicly at this stage is Mr Mona's claim that the project will cost about R10 billion is false. Sanral is preventing the city from informing the public of the true costs of the project.”
Sapa