Outa mulls over e-tolls appeal
The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) will decide on Friday (21 December) whether to appeal a High Court decision to dismiss an application to scrap e-tolling on Gauteng freeways.
“We have studied the judgment and will meet with our legal team tomorrow to discuss what route we are going to take,” Outa chairman Wayne Duvenhage said on Thursday.
“We believe there are reasonably strong reasons to appeal.”
On December 13, the High Court in Pretoria dismissed a claim by Outa that the SA National Roads Agency Limited had a deliberate strategy to keep the public in the dark and that public participation was not adequately done.
The court dismissed the application and ordered Outa to pay the legal costs involved in the application.
Duvenhage said Outa would decide on whether to appeal the costs, the judgment or both, on Friday afternoon.
Outa applied to have e-tolls scrapped and said the method proposed to collect money from motorists was too expensive.
At the time, the Automobile Association of SA, the Congress of SA Trade Unions, the Freedom Front Plus, the Democratic Alliance and the Justice Project SA all expressed their disappointment with the court ruling.
In September, the Constitutional Court overturned an interim order putting the Gauteng e-tolling project on hold.
The Constitutional Court found the High Court in Pretoria had not considered the separation of powers between the high court and the executive on April 28.
On April 28, the high court granted the interdict to Outa, ruling that a full review needed to be carried out before e-tolling could be implemented.
The interdict prevented Sanral from levying or collecting tolls pending the review’s outcome.
The minister of transport would make an announcement on when e-tolls would be implemented.
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