Johannesburg - The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance's bid to appeal against a high court decision that ruled in favour of Sanral is likely to fail, said a constitutional law expert in a report on Wednesday.
"The original Constitutional Court judgment blasted a hole into Outa's legal argument by saying that policy decisions are not to be meddled with by the courts," Pierre de Vos said in the Mail & Guardian.
On December 13 the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria dismissed an application by Outa to have the electronic tolling of Gauteng's major highways scrapped. It came after a Constitutional Court ruling in September that put the plan on hold, pending the outcome of a judicial review, said the report.
Outa chairperson Wayne Duvenage confirmed over the weekend that the civil society group would be appealing the e-toll judgment.
Their chances of success however are dim. "I would be very surprised if the SCA [Supreme Court of Appeal] decides to take a different view on this matter," de Vos is quoted as saying.
Duvenage said he was optimistic of the group's chances, but conceded that if this appeal did fail, they would not take the challenge any further.
"We have a strong case," he told the M&G. "The members of Outa would rather go for this and put it behind them if it was a lost cause," he said.