Legal expert: Here’s why Gauteng still pays E-tolls but Cape Town never will

Following the result of the recent Supreme Court of Appeal decision in SANRAL vs The City of Cape Town it was declared that Capetonians will not have to pay e-tolls.

Yet, when Gauteng drivers went to court for the same reason, there case was dismissed – why?

In a Dispute Resolution Report posted on Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr’s website, legal expert Pieter Conradie revealed why this was the case.

Put simply, it’s because they hadn’t started building the e-toll infrastructure in the Western Cape yet.

The circumstances of the Cape Town case were different to those in the OUTA case. The road works have not commenced in Cape Town and the amount (already spent) of approximately R136 million is relatively small in comparison to the huge costs of the entire SANRAL project in Gauteng worth R22 billion.

In the OUTA case the upgrades of the highways had already been completed and were due to be paid for by the time OUTA launched the application to review and interdict the implementation of the e-toll system.

Without e-tolling, SANRAL’s R22 billion debt, along with interest which was “running at an alarming rate”, would remain unpaid.

Add to this the fact that Gauteng bought its case “5 years too late” and the SCA found that the review application was unreasonable and that it was contrary to public interest to attempt to “undo history”.