City to approach Supreme Court of Appeal for relief in SANRAL secrecy matter
Following the dismissal of the City of Cape Town's application for leave to appeal in the Western Cape High Court, the City will immediately petition the Supreme Court of Appeal. Read more below:
This morning, 10 October 2014, Judge Ashley Binns-Ward of the Western Cape High Court dismissed the City's application for leave to appeal against his judgment delivered on 28 August 2014.
The application was dismissed on a procedural aspect and not on substantive issues and the City will immediately be petitioning the Supreme Court of Appeal for leave to appeal. To quote from paragraph 19 of the judgment that was delivered on 8 October 2014, the judge stated: ‘...if it had not been for the effect of section 17(1)(c) (of the Superior Courts Act 10 of 2013) I would, on balance, have inclined in favour of granting leave to appeal...'.
Section 17(1)(c) of the Superior Courts Act provides that leave to appeal may only be given ‘where the decision sought to be appealed does not dispose of all the issues in the case, the appeal would lead to a just and prompt resolution of the real issues between the parties'.
Judge Binns-Ward referred to the ‘real issues in the case' as being the legality of the decision to declare toll roads, and found that an appeal of his judgment in the secrecy application would not lead to a resolution of the issues in that case. Of course, we disagree.