Tolls judge was 'biased'

The long-expected showdown on Gauteng's highway tolls got off to a dramatic start yesterday when the presiding judge was asked to consider recusing himself.

The Treasury's advocate, Jeremy Gauntlett, questioned Judge Louis Vorster's impartiality, and asked him to "consider" his "position" on the grounds that Vorster appeared to be agreeing with the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance's (Outa) argument that the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) was in breach of its own regulations.

Gauntlett challenged Vorster after Outa's advocate, Mike Maritz, launched an attack on Sanral's lack of compliance with section 27 of the Sanral Act, which requires "meaningful" public participation on tolling, saying this was the "... crisp point dispositive of this case".

"If your lordship is with us on this, it is dispositive of the entire review proceedings," Maritz told Vorster, who replied: "Mr Maritz, you can rest assured that I was with you even before you started talking."

Gauntlett took exception to Vorster's reply, saying his client had "reasonably" developed a perception that Vorster had a fixed view on the matter.

However, after a short meeting in Vorster's office, it was decided that an application for the judge to recuse himself would not be necessary if he clarified his statement.

Vorster is presiding over Outa's application to have Sanral's decision to implement e-tolls on some Gauteng highways reviewed and set aside.

Tearing into Sanral's "window-dressing" public participation process last year, Maritz said it yielded about 30 submissions, He said that the national roads agency "deliberately" played its cards close to its chest to keep the public in the dark about the implications of the tolling scheme.

He charged that Sanral failed to adhere to its 2006 proposal in which it called for public consultation on the principle of e-tolling, construction costs and tariff collection.

Maritz said Sanral's lax public consultation process was unlawful, and that the limited public consultation did not represent millions of Gauteng motorists.

He argued that the legal system was not capable of dealing with 250000 e-toll defaulters a month. He said toll-collection costs would amount to R30.5-billion, which he said would be wasted.

The hearing continues today.