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The Democratic Alliance welcomes a court ruling today from the Supreme Court of Appeal that SANRAL cannot keep secret the terms of its agreements to toll the Western Cape portions of the N1 and N2 highways, known as the Winelands Tolling Project.

SANRAL had bid to stop the City of Cape Town from exposing the contents of a tender that SANRAL would award to Protea Parkways Consortium (PPC), to toll in the Western Cape at exorbitantly high tariffs.

SANRAL’s secrecy game was an attempt to hide the truth from the people of the Western Cape.

This is a victory for the City of Cape Town, and it shows that a government committed to putting its people first can successfully oppose tolling.

After the ruling it has emerged that SANRAL intends to toll the Western Cape at three-times the cost of Gauteng’s E-tolls. This is a proposal for state-sponsored daylight robbery.

After Nazir Alli went rogue by declaring the Winelands Tolling Project unauthorised, he had no choice but to cover up its terms and hide it away through court applications for secrecy. Today the courts have exposed Mr. Alli for his unauthorised actions and the attempt to conceal them.

It is high time that SANRAL learns that it cannot trample on the law in its obsessive quest to swindle South Africans of our hard-earned money.

The truth of SANRAL’s plans, are now exposed, and the DA supports the City of Cape Town’s court action to overturn this SANRAL Winelands Tolling Project.

On 11 August 2015 in the Western Cape High Court, the City of Cape Town will move for the entire scheme to be scrapped.

The people of the Western Cape should not bear the burden of SANRAL’s irrational and unaffordable choices.

Issued by DA