Ruling ends Tasima’s claim to eNaTIS
In what could signal an end to a long and complicated battle over the country’s National Traffic Information System (eNaTIS)‚ the Constitutional Court on Tuesday ruled in favour of the Department of Transport.
In what could signal an end to a long and complicated battle over the country’s National Traffic Information System (eNaTIS)‚ the Constitutional Court on Tuesday ruled in favour of the Department of Transport.
The effect of Tuesday’s judgment is that‚ essentially‚ the department is not required to pay the R33m claimed by Tasima for services related to eNaTIS that the company claimed to have provided to the department after June 23 2015.
This is the date on which the High Court in Pretoria declared that the contract between the department and Tasima for the provision of eNaTIS was invalid.
The judgment also means that Tasima’s bid to hold on to eNaTIS has finally been dismissed — for good.
The wrangle has been playing out between Tasima‚ a company awarded a tender to implement the system‚ and the department. eNaTIS is the official register for vehicles‚ driving licences‚ contravention and accident data in SA.
In a ruling handed down in November 2016‚ the Constitutional Court ordered Tasima to hand over the services and eNaTIS system to the Department of Transport’s Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) within 30 days.
Although the contract was supposed to be terminated in 2007‚ a number of extensions were granted until the department obtained a court order in 2015 setting aside the purported extension of the contract. This was confirmed by the Constitutional Court in November 2016.
COURT ORDERS
Tasima had‚ in the meantime‚ obtained two high court orders to be paid for work it had done between 2015 and 2016.
This resulted in the department appealing against the judgment by Judge Sulet Potterill in the Constitutional Court. Potterill had ruled that the department and the RTMC should pay Tasima the millions it owed.
Tasima also appealed against a high court order obtained by the department in 2017 that evicted the company from the eNaTIS premises and compelled Tasima to hand over the system to the RTMC.
In a judgment dealing with both appeals‚ Constitutional Court acting Judge Xola Petse upheld the department’s appeal and dismissed Tasima’s appeal. Petse said the orders obtained by Tasima had legal force and effect only from the time they were granted and for so long as the declaration of invalidity by the high court — from June 23 2015 — had not been made.
“Although the declaration of invalidity made by the high court was confirmed by this court … on November 9 2016‚ this confirmation‚ as indicated earlier‚ had retrospective effect from June 23 2015,” the judge said.
Petse dismissed Tasima’s appeal and said hearing its appeal on eviction would be an academic exercise as the relief sought by the company would have no practical effect.
Petse said Tasima took no issue with the fact that eNaTIS was now firmly under the control of the RTMC.
RTMC spokesman Simon Zwane said the judgment meant that Tasima’s bid to hold on to eNaTIS by fighting eviction from the premises where the system was housed had finally been dealt with.
“Tasima can no longer be the holder of the eNaTIS system as it had tried to do by fighting eviction from the premises where the system was held,” said Zwane.
“The judgment affirms the Constitutional Court order of 2016 that the system should belong to the RTMC‚” he said.
The system is housed and managed by RTMC on behalf of the transport department.