Cape Town – Western Cape High Court judge Ashley Binns-Ward ruled in favour of the City of Cape Town on Wednesday when he set aside the South African National Roads Agency’s Winelands Tolling Project.
The judge also set aside the transport minister’s 2008 decision to declare sections of the N1 and N2 as toll roads.
This means that if Sanral wants to go ahead with tolling, it will have to start the entire process from scratch.
City of Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille described the verdict as “a victory for all South Africans”.
She said the City of Cape Town had gone out of its way to provide the court with all the evidence it needed.
This included the fact that Capetonian toll road users would have to fork out three times as much as their Gauteng counterparts at 74 cents per kilometre.
The city’s Brett Heron said he was relieved that the court had ruled in favour of the city in finding that the “interests of the public” outweighed the issue of delay in bringing the case.
The city had delayed in taking legal action for almost four years, which had been a key issue in favour of Sanral when the court heard arguments earlier this year.
Sanral said it would be studying the judgement and would release a statement shortly
ANA