Cape Town - The fight for the right to scrutinise critical information about toll fees and the cost of the SA National Roads Agency’s controversial N1 and N2 toll road project moves to the Supreme Court of Appeal today as the City of Cape Town lodges its appeal for access to all related documents.
The Western Cape High Court ruled last year that papers filed by Sanral in response to the city’s application to review the toll project, should remain confidential.
This meant all supplementary papers and answering affidavits dealing with the review application will remain sealed until the matter is heard.
Brett Herron, mayoral committee member for Transport for Cape Town, said then that this barred the city from releasing information about the most significant aspects of its supplementary papers, which dealt with the toll fees, total expected revenue, profits, construction costs and the cost-benefit ratio.
Although Judge Ashley Binns-Ward dismissed Sanral’s confidentiality plea, he applied a rule that prevented parties from providing details of an administrative action.
The Legal Resources Centre said this deprived the public of information about the way the government operated.
Judge Binns-Ward also reversed the practice that allowed anyone to access court records from the Registrar of the High Court.
Eleven civil society organisations, including the Right2Know Campaign, the Legal Resources Centre and Corruption Watch, have thrown their weight behind the city’s court battle. As friends of the court they will give evidence of the impact of the high court decision on the independence of the judiciary, the right to access the courts, the prevention of corruption and freedom of speech and the press.
In their submission, the organisations argue that the high court decision makes it difficult for journalists to report accurately and fairly on court proceedings. It also “prevents or delays the discovery and exposure of public or private wrongdoing”. Furthermore, by keeping a lid on court documents, the judgment threatened the right of the public to open justice, the right of everyone to access to information, as well as the city’s right to freedom of expression.
Herron will be in Bloemfontein for today’s hearing.
The city has been fighting Sanral’s proposed Winelands toll project since 2012, on the basis that the tolling will be detrimental to poorer communities and that the road upgrades it will fund are unnecessary.
Its review application, set down for August 11 in the Western Cape High Court, calls for Sanral’s “unlawful and improper” decision to declare the N1 and N2 as toll roads set aside, and for the whole project to be scrapped.
Cape Argus