Cape Town – The City of Cape Town’s advocate Geoff Budlender SC has told the Western Cape High Court that the then “transport minister misconstrued his powers” when he declared sections of the N1 and N2 toll roads in 2008.
The Western Cape High Court is hearing the City’s application to have the decision reviewed and set aside.
Responding to the South African National Roads Agency Limited’s (Sanral’s) heads of argument , Budlender told the court that the transport minister “was supposed to decide whether the declaration of a toll road was a good thing in broad terms, but he didn’t consider this”.
The City contends that the Winelands Toll Roads Project was neither financially nor socially viable.
In 2008, the transport minister was given the most accurate estimate of what the project would cost, and then it stood at R7,9 billion. But, Budlender said, “we showed actually its R59 billion in today’s money at its lowest estimate”.
According to the Sanral Act, the transport minister and the Sanral board must decide whether to declare a toll road, and there must be public participation before then.
The City contends, however, that there wasn’t a fair process in the the “intent to toll procedure”.
Budlender went so far as to say that public participation was a “sham”.
He also said that Sanral’s “premise that bidders won’t come in unless there has been a declaration is baseless”.
He pointed to the fact that Parliament had amended the Sanral Act to say there must be a socio-economic study done before declaring a toll road . But, “you can’t assess socio-economic impact unless you know the toll fees”.
Budlender argued that the “declaration of a toll road is an administrative function which affects the public”.
“The public must be given notice, what the reasons are, and a reasonable opportunity to make representations,” he said.
The City said Sanral didn’t do this and it “wasn’t a fair process”.
Rather there was a one page notice saying which portions of the roads would be tolled and where the toll plazas would be. This, Budlender contends, was “a denial of opportunity to make any effective presentations”.
Budlender accused Sanral of “setting up a shadow process or sham process”.
If tolling goes ahead, Capetonians will have to fork out three times as much as Gauteng toll road users, at 74c per km as opposed to 26c per km.
Judge Ashley Binns-Ward has consistently returned, however, to the issue of delay. Earlier on Monday, he said the City had not given a “strong on explanation” for its four year delay in mounting its legal challenge.
ANA