Toll road U-turn welcomed in Cape

The City of Cape Town has welcomed the news that the National Department of Transport has called a halt to SANRAL’s tolling projects until further investigations are completed.

The City is concerned that the full impact of the N1/N2 tolling project on the economy and residents of Cape Town has not been fully investigated nor considered. The City declared an inter-governmental dispute with Sanral in July and more recently launched an application in the Cape High Court for an interdict to stop the project going ahead.

The application to the High Court was premised on Cape Town’s view that the process followed by Sanral, which eventually led to the N1 and N2 being declared toll roads, was fundamentally flawed and illegal; and that the imposition of these toll roads would amount to unfair discrimination against poor communities who would be disproportionately affected by these tolls.
The City said it appeared from the statement by the National Minister of Transport “that he shares our concerns with regards to the socio-economic impacts and that he is seeking to address one of our procedural concerns – lack of proper consultation with the City and the public. However, we have raised other legal issues which do not appear to be addressed by the minister.

“We welcome the department’s intervention on this important issue and look forward to working with the Transport Department on finding appropriate funding mechanisms for road infrastructure construction and maintenance that does not hinder economic activity nor unfairly toll and discriminate against residents.”

Tourism in the Western Cape would have been the most seriously affected industry in the Western Cape.