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Last ditch bid to stop e-tolls fails

Pretoria - An application by the FF Plus to stop e-tolls on Gauteng highways was struck from the roll by the High Court in Pretoria on Monday.

"The matter is scrapped from the roll for lack of urgency," said Judge Maria Jansen.

She said the applicant sought wide-reaching relief, and failed to make a proper case.

Jansen said the constitutional issues related to the case were complicated, and it had implications for the separation of powers.

Afterwards, Freedom Front Plus spokesperson Anton Alberts said the merits of the case had not been heard.

"We are very disappointed... The merits of the case were not heard today. The matter is not necessarily dead."

Alberts said the party would decide on a way forward. A likely option was to put the matter up for review, which could take a few months.

Alberts said the court ruling was not in the public interest.

Legal counsel for Transport Minister Dipuo Peters argued on Monday that the FF Plus court application  is a deliberate ploy to delay e-tolling.

"The creation of a vehicle for litigation... shows a deliberate strategy to get us to court," her lawyer Jeremy Gauntlett said.

"This is a deliberate strategy to delay it... What makes you so special?"

Counsel for the Freedom Front Plus denied claims that the party's application was political grandstanding.

"There is no political grandstanding of any nature in this case."

The party's counsel argued there would be irreparable harm to motorists if the e-toll regulations were not declared invalid.

On Monday morning around 15 members of the FF Plus held placards outside the court.

"Stop e-tolls, stop e-tolls, stop e-tolls," the placards read.

Alberts said last week that he was confident of a victory in its application.

He claimed the state had made critical technical errors with the announcement of the implementation date of e-tolls.

He said in terms of the Sanral Act, there had to be a 14-day difference between the date on which the commencement of e-tolling was announced, and the date on which the system was implemented.

He said the system was only meant to start operating on December 4 and not December 3.

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