Sanral “secrecy” bid fails
Applications by Sanral and the Protea Parkway Consortium (PPC) to keep certain court documents on the N1/N2 Winelands Toll Highway project secret, were dismissed by the Western Cape High Court on Thursday.
However, Judge Ashley Binns-Ward made certain orders that would effectively keep categories of information under wraps until the court started to review the SA National Roads Agency Limited’s (Sanral’s) decision to toll the roads. No review date had yet been set.
Sanral had applied to the court to prevent the City of Cape Town from filing its supplementary founding papers in an open court, based on two categories of information.
The first category related to the proposed project’s costs, which Sanral argued would cause “unjustified and unnecessary concern among the general public” if released prematurely.
It argued it would result in unjustified antagonism and bias towards Sanral by the general public.
Sanral alleged the city, in its (the city’s) supplementary founding papers, was trying to convey, through the use of expert opinions, that the decision to toll was financially untenable.
Sanral asked that the information be kept out of the public domain until it had filed its answering affidavit with its own expert opinions.
Binns-Ward found seeking such relief was unnecessary because all relevant applicants and respondents were bound by the court to use the information only for the review application, and not for a “collateral or ulterior purpose”.
This meant the city was not allowed to disseminate or publish the information because it would amount to contempt of court.
The second category of information in the city’s supplementary founding papers related to the tender process, which was still outstanding. It included commercial information on the bidders, the debt funding competition, and Sanral’s bid evaluation.
Sanral had argued that releasing this before the review hearing “would cause harm and damage to Sanral, bidders in the tender process, the SA fiscus and economy and the general public”.
It said the disclosure of such would fall foul of Sanral’s statutory obligations.
The court held the applicants had failed to present a factual case that proved this category of information should be seen as confidential, and thus no relief was granted.
However, the court found the public and other bidders would in any way not have unregulated access to the court file before the review hearing.
DA claims victory
DA Western Cape leader Ivan Meyer welcomed the ruling in the City’s favour, counting it as the second victory against Sanral’s proposed tolling plans in the province in 18 months.
“The DA vehemently opposes the tolling of highways in the Western Cape. We will continue to support the City in all its efforts to stop SANRAL’s N1/N2 tolling project,” Meyer said.
“Just like in Gauteng, Sanral wants to pump billions into this project, at the taxpayers’ expense.”
“It is becoming abundantly clear that Sanral’s N1/N2 tolling project is doomed to fail. It will hit poor commuters hardest. It will increase the cost of basic goods and make Cape Town less competitive and will kill jobs. We will fight it all the way,” the party leader said.
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