The City of Cape Town has scored a victory over the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) in the matter of tolling the N1 and N2 freeways in the Western Cape.

The roads agency has been trying for over four years to have sections of the road tolled, which has been fiercely resisted by the City of Cape Town. The matter eventually made a turn in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, declaring that Sanral can’t toll the proposed roads.

“The City of Cape Town has won every round in court since we launched our review application on 28 March 2012 to set aside the approvals that enabled Sanral to toll sections of the N1 and N2 freeways in Cape Town,” the City said in a statement.

The City accuses Sanral of following “an improper and unlawful process” in getting the initial approval, and added that if the tolling went ahead the people of Western Cape would have had to fork over R62 billion in toll fees over a period of 30 years.

“As such, the outcome of this court case is a resounding victory for the residents of Cape Town and the Western Cape province as a whole,” said the City’s Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille.

The Supreme Court of Appeal said that the decision that Sanral took in 2014 to toll sections of the N1 and N2 invalid. It was reviewed and set aside.

“The City has successfully argued in court that the Minister of Transport and Sanral both failed to consider relevant information – such as the impacts of tolling, the affordability of the proposed toll fees for low-income earners, traffic diversion rates and the impact on the surrounding road networks, the financial viability and sustainability of the tolling project, and other less expensive funding options for the refurbishment of the N1 and N2 freeways,” the City said.

The SCA dismissed Sanral’s appeal with costs in a court case that is already estimated to have cost R20 million.

[Image – CC by 2.0/Axel Bührmann]