Transnet SOC Limited v Total South Africa (Pty) Limited and Another (CCT 114/21) [2022] ZACC 21

Click here to read the full judgment on Saflii [1]          An agreement concluded in 1967 for the transportation of crude oil from Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, to an inland refinery sited in Sasolburg, Free State, did not expressly provide for termination. This agreement entailed what was known as the neutrality principle. So called because – in order to attract the participation, in an inland refinery, of an established foreign oil company, Total South Africa (Pty) Ltd (Total) which is the first respondent – the South African government had to make a contractual undertaking that the inland refinery would not be disadvantaged by the cost of transporting crude oil from Durban to the inland refinery. Put differently, the cost had to be structured such that it was as if the inland refinery was sited at the coast. →