Sanral dodges Outa – again
SHOCKING: REFUSES TO SHARE INFORMATION Last-minute decision to oppose our Paia application is nothing but a refusal to be transparent – Outa.
The long-standing attempts of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) to obtain more transparency from the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) about possible “excessive profits” being made by its long-distance toll concessionaires have been thwarted again – for now.
This follows Sanral’s lawyers at the 11th hour indicating the agency has decided to oppose Outa’s request for information about its toll concessionaires through a Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia) application to the High Court in Pretoria.
Advocate Stefanie Fick, executive director of Outa’s accountability division, said the application was schedule d to be heard on the unopposed court roll on Tuesday but Sanral’s lawyers indicated very late on Monday that Sanral had now decided to oppose the request and application.
Failed to give notice
Sanral failed to give notice of its intention to oppose Outa’s application and to submit an answering affidavit despite Sanral GM for marketing and communications Vusi Mona informing Moneyweb in July 2020 that Sanral would be defending the court application.
Mona said at the time that in terms of Paia, Sanral is obliged to protect the rights of other parties, such as N3 Toll Concession (N3TC). “As Section 36 is a mandatory obligation set upon Sanral to protect the commercial information of third parties (N3TC), Sanral will have no other choice but to defend such an application in accordance with the law,” he said.
Fick said on Tuesday Outa lodged the high court application against Sanral after two years of failed attempts to get information on the three national concessionaire routes:
▶ The N1 between Pretoria and Bela-Bela and the N4 from Pretoria to the Botswana border operated by Bakwena;
▶ The N4 stretching from Pretoria to the Mozambique border operated by Trans African Concessions; and
▶ The N3 from Pretoria to Durban operated by N3TC.
A high court order was granted against Sanral on Tuesday for the wasted costs of the court proceedings.
It was also ordered to file its answering affidavit and condonation application within the next 15 days.
A list of questions was e-mailed to Sanral on Tuesday, however, it indicated through its communication company that it was unable to meet the deadline to provide a response.
Last-minute decision
Fick said it is “shocking” that Sanral once again chooses not to share information with the public. “The last-minute decision to oppose our Paia application is nothing but a refusal to be transparent,” she said.
“Not only is it a waste of the court’s time and an abuse of the system. but this type of Stalingrad litigation is once again costing the taxpayer money since Sanral is a stateowned enterprise [SOE] funded with our taxes.”
Fick added it is “infuriating” and also a “sad day” when an SOE again cho0ses legal action over transparency, especially since government is promising daily that they are serious about rooting out corruption.
“One of the reasons state capture happened is because of a lack of transparency,” she said.
“When will government and SOEs realise that they can’t be in a constant battle with citizens and civil society when it comes to transparency? If Sanral has nothing to hide, why not share the information with us?
“Taxpayers have a right to see the terms and conditions of these contracts, and Outa will keep on fighting for total transparency on behalf of South Africans.”