Case Law[2023] ZASCA 31South Africa
PUTCO (Pty) Ltd v City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality and Others (252/22) [2023] ZASCA 31; [2023] 2 All SA 601 (SCA) (30 March 2023)
Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa
30 March 2023
Headnotes
Summary: Statutory interpretation – National Land Transport Act 5 of 2009 (NLTA) – negotiated contracts under s 41 – breakdown in negotiations – transport operator seeking interdict to refer dispute to mediation or arbitration under s 46(2) of the NLTA – inapplicable to disputes arising from negotiation of contracts under s 41 – operator not establishing prima facie right – appeal dismissed.
Judgment
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## PUTCO (Pty) Ltd v City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality and Others (252/22) [2023] ZASCA 31; [2023] 2 All SA 601 (SCA) (30 March 2023)
PUTCO (Pty) Ltd v City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality and Others (252/22) [2023] ZASCA 31; [2023] 2 All SA 601 (SCA) (30 March 2023)
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sino date 30 March 2023
THE
SUPREME COURT OF APPEAL OF SOUTH AFRICA
JUDGMENT
Reportable
Case No: 252/2022
In the matter between:
PUTCO
(PTY) LTD
APPELLANT
and
CITY
OF JOHANNESBURG
METROPOLITAN
MUNICIPALITY FIRST
RESPONDENT
THE SOUTH AFRICAN
NATIONAL
TAXI
COUNCIL SECOND
RESPONDENT
ALEXANDRA, RANDBURG,
MIDRAND,
SANDTON TAXI
ASSOCIATION THIRD
RESPONDENT
ALEXANDRA TAXI
ASSOCIATION FOURTH
RESPONDENT
IVORY PARK TAXI
ASSOCIATION
FIFTH RESPONDENT
MIDRAND TAXI
ASSOCIATION
SIXTH RESPONDENT
RABIE RIDGE TAXI
ASSOCIATION SEVENTH
RESPONDENT
RANDBURG LOCAL AND
LONG
DISTANCE TAXI
ASSOCIATION
EIGHTH RESPONDENT
MEC FOR ROADS AND
TRANSPORT,
GAUTENG NINTH
RESPONDENT
Neutral
citation:
PUTCO (Pty) Ltd v City of Johannesburg
Metropolitan Municipality and Others
(Case no
252/22)
[2023] ZASCA
31
(
30 March
2023
)
Coram:
SALDULKER, SCHIPPERS, MBATHA and MOLEFE
JJA and UNTERHALTER AJA
Heard:
10 March 2023
Delivered:
30 March 2023
Summary:
Statutory interpretation – National Land Transport Act 5 of
2009 (NLTA) – negotiated contracts under s 41 – breakdown
in negotiations – transport operator seeking interdict to refer
dispute to mediation or arbitration under s 46(2) of the
NLTA –
inapplicable to disputes arising from negotiation of contracts under
s 41 – operator not establishing prima
facie right –
appeal dismissed.
ORDER
On
appeal from:
Gauteng
Division of the High Court, Johannesburg (Mudau J sitting as
court of first instance):
1
The application to adduce further evidence is refused with costs,
including the costs
of two counsel.
2
The appeal is dismissed with costs, including the costs of two
counsel.
JUDGMENT
Schippers JA
(Saldulker, Mbatha and Molefe JJA and Unterhalter AJA concurring)
[1]
The
appellant, Putco (Pty) Ltd (Putco), operates a subsidised public bus
service in Gauteng, which it has done for decades. The
first
respondent, the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality (the
City), is a ‘planning authority’ as defined
in the
National Land Transportation Act 5 of 2009 (the NLTA).
[1]
In terms of s 40 of the NLTA, planning authorities are required to
integrate public transport services subject to contracts in
their
areas, as well as appropriate uncontracted services, ‘into the
larger public transport system in terms of relevant
integrated
transport plans’. The second to eighth respondents are various
taxi associations. They did not participate in
the proceedings in the
court below, nor in this appeal. The ninth respondent is the Member
of the Executive Council responsible
for the Gauteng Department of
Roads and Transport (the GDRT), who abided the decision of the court
below.
[2]
The main issue in this appeal, which is with the leave
of this Court,
concerns the meaning and effect of ss 41 and 46 of the NLTA. Putco
contends that the dispute resolution mechanism
(mediation or
arbitration) in s 46(2) applies to its dispute with the City
regarding its market share of the integrated public
transport network
(IPTN) being implemented by the City. The City’s case is that
the dispute arises from negotiations conducted
under s 41 of the
NLTA, to which s 46 is inapplicable. More specifically, the City
asserts that s 46(2) applies only where
a public transport operator
has an existing contract, as defined in the now repealed National
Land Transport Transition Act 22
of 2000 (the Transition Act), with
the relevant contracting authority. Putco does not have such a
contract with the City.
[3]
The basic facts are not contentious and may be briefly
stated. The
City has developed an Integrated Public Transport Operational Plan
aimed at combining all existing modes of public
transport (including
bus and taxi routes) into a single network. The well-known feature of
the Plan is the Rea Vaya Rapid Bus System
(the Rea Vaya system),
which is being implemented in phases on identified routes within the
Municipality of Johannesburg. In order
to implement this system, the
City negotiated with bus and taxi operators, including Putco, whose
routes were ‘affected’,
ie those who were likely to lose
passengers to the Rea Vaya system, to remove or reduce their existing
services. In return, those
operators were offered shares in bus
operating companies which the City had incorporated to run the newly
integrated network.
[4]
The City negotiated Phases 1A and 1B of the Rea Vaya
system with
affected taxi and bus operators, which culminated in negotiated
contracts under s 41 of the NLTA. Putco became
a 26% shareholder
in the bus operating company that was incorporated for, and that
currently operates, Phase 1B of the Rea Vaya
system. Putco however
submitted that its contract with the City in relation to Phase 1B was
concluded in terms of s 46 and not
s 41 of the NLTA. I return to this
aspect below. Phase 1A commenced in 2010 and Phase 1B in 2013.
[5]
This case concerns Phase 1C(a), a component of Phase
1C, which covers
an area from the Johannesburg central business district to Sandton,
known as the North East Quadrant (NEQ). Implementation
of Phase 1C(a)
of the Rea Vaya system will affect the current services provided by
Putco between Soweto and the greater Sandton
area. Putco renders
these services in terms of an Interim Contract 48/97, concluded on 26
March 1997 between the GDRT and Putco
under the Transition Act (and
amended on 6 August 1997 and 7 December 2007).
[6]
On 19
September 2017 the City, various taxi associations, Putco and another
bus operating company, JR Choeu Express and Coaches
(JR Choeu),
entered into a Negotiation Framework Agreement in respect of the
North East Quadrant Integrated Project (the NFA).
The role of the
NFA, essentially, is to facilitate negotiations between the parties
in the restructuring of public transport services
in the NEQ, by
establishing rules and a framework for the various phases of the
negotiations. The NFA records that the parties
had agreed to develop
and implement an integrated operational plan, which includes entering
into negotiated contracts as envisaged
in s 41 of the NLTA; and that
the negotiated contracts to be concluded between the City and
affected operators should be achieved
through a structured and
time-bound negotiation process, based on defined principles. The NFA
contains specific dispute resolution
procedures aimed at the final
resolution of disputes between the parties. These include the
appointment of independent facilitators
to execute dispute resolution
mechanisms.
[2]
[7]
For several years, Putco and the City negotiated how
many shares
Putco should have in the operating companies formed by the City to
run each phase of the Rea Vaya system. Negotiations
in relation to
Phase 1C(a) broke down after the City would not budge from its offer
to Putco of a 0.27% shareholding in the new
bus operating company.
Putco claimed that there was no agreement between it and the City on
the ‘affectedness criteria’
to be applied to Phase 1C,
and that the criteria used to conclude agreements between the City
and minibus taxi operators could
not be applied to Putco. The City
however contended that all the parties, including Putco, had agreed
upon a data collection and
analysis exercise, the results of which
were used to determine the extent to which an operator was affected
by the Rea Vaya system;
and that a report of a study conducted on
behalf of the City showed that Putco was affected to a very limited
extent. JR Choeu
agreed with the study and its outcome, and
withdrew from the process. The City also asserted that negotiations
were held openly
with the taxi industry, and that Putco refused to
accept the outcome of negotiations because it was not what Putco had
expected.
[8]
Thus, the central dispute between Putco and the City
in the
negotiation of the contracts under s 41 of the NLTA regarding Phase
1C(a), related to the affectedness criteria. The City
appointed a
facilitator to help resolve the dispute. However, there were delays
that frustrated its resolution. Consequently, on
27 October 2020
Putco instituted proceedings in the
Gauteng
Division of the High Court, Johannesburg (the high court),
to
bring the dispute resolution process to finality by convening a
meeting of the Core Group, contemplated in the dispute resolution
procedures in the NFA. Subsequently, a meeting of the Core Group was
convened and it was agreed that the dispute be resolved through
arbitration, subject to agreement on the terms of reference and the
identity of the arbitrator.
[9]
However,
Putco and the City could not agree on the terms of reference of the
arbitrator and the dispute remained unresolved. On
30 June 2021 Putco
launched an application in the
high
court, essentially for an order interdicting the City from
incorporating a bus operating company or another corporate entity
for
the purposes of Phase 1C(a) of the Rea Vaya system; and from
negotiating, concluding or implementing an agreement with any
of the
second to eighth respondents, regarding their shareholding in such
bus operating company or corporate entity. The interdict
was sought
pending the final outcome of a dispute resolution process between
Putco and the City under s 46(2) of the NLTA, including
mediation
under regulation 7 of the National Land Transport Regulations on
Contracting for Public Transport Services, 2009 (the
Regulations),
[3]
and failing mediation, referral to an appropriate court for
settlement of the dispute.
[10]
The high
court (Mudau J) dismissed Putco’s application for an interdict,
on the basis that it had not established a prima
facie right. The
court held that the question whether s 41 or s 46 of the NLTA applied
to the negotiations between the parties
had been settled in
Golden
Arrow Bus Services (Pty) Ltd v City of Cape Town and Others
,
[4]
in which this Court held that the two provisions deal with entirely
different situations. Section 46 governs ‘[e]xisting
contracting arrangements’ (although it does make provision for
the inclusion of an operator in an existing contract) and
does not
apply to contracts that have yet to be concluded. By contrast, s 41
applies to ‘negotiated contracts’ and
makes no provision
for disputes that may arise out of s 41 negotiations to be referred
to mediation or arbitration.
[5]
[11]
Before considering the parties’ submissions on this
issue, it is
necessary to deal with Putco’s application under
s
19
(b)
of the
Superior Courts Act 10 of 2013
, to adduce further
evidence on appeal. The evidence sought to be adduced comprises an
Inter-Governmental Authorisation Agreement
concluded between the City
and the GDRT in February 2018 (the intergovernmental agreement). The
stated purpose of the intergovernmental
agreement is to provide
efficient and continuous public transport services, which the parties
acknowledge is the responsibility
of government. The parties
undertake to achieve that purpose, inter alia, by the GDRT assisting
and supporting the City in building
its capacity to manage subsidised
service contracts; establishing an agreed framework for co-operation
and co-ordination between
the parties; and ensuring that the parties
exercise their powers and perform their functions in a manner that
does not encroach
on each other’s functional and institutional
integrity.
[12]
Putco’s basic contention is that the obligations imposed on the
GDRT
and the City by the intergovernmental agreement demonstrates
that
s 46
of the NLTA applies to its extant interim contract, even
though that contract was concluded with the GDRT and not the City.
Then
it is said that the intergovernmental agreement puts paid to the
City’s argument that it is not a party to Interim Contract
48/97 and therefore is not bound by the provisions of
s 46(2).
[13]
The
City opposes the application to adduce further evidence on two
grounds. First, Putco has not met the requirements for
adducing
further evidence on appeal, as the intergovernmental agreement is
irrelevant. Second, the appeal has become moot: more
correctly, an
interdict is not granted for a past invasion of rights.
[6]
After the high court dismissed Putco’s application, the City
concluded contracts with the second to eighth respondents in
respect
of Phase 1C(a) of the Rea Vaya System. Consequently, the interdict
sought would serve no purpose.
[14]
The
principles governing the powers of an appellate court to receive
further evidence are well-settled. Further evidence on appeal
is
allowed only in special circumstances because it is in the public
interest that there should be finality to a trial or application.
[7]
The basic requirements are that there must be some reasonably
sufficient explanation why the evidence sought to be adduced was
not
presented at the trial; there should be a prima facie likelihood of
the truth of the evidence; and the evidence should be materially
relevant to the outcome of the proceedings.
[8]
[15]
The
intergovernmental agreement is irrelevant to the main issue in this
appeal. This is fundamentally because the proper construction
of
ss
41
and
46
of the NLTA is a matter of law and not fact, and cannot be
based on evidence.
[9]
This was
rightly conceded by counsel for Putco, but then it was submitted that
the intergovernmental agreement was reflective of
the intention of
the legislature. The submission is untenable and no more need be said
about it.
[16]
Further, the argument that the intergovernmental agreement
demonstrates that
the City is bound by Interim Contract 48/97,
despite not being a party to that contract, is unsound. The interim
contract envisaged
in
s 46(1)
and (2) is one ‘as defined in the
Transition Act’. That Act defined an ‘interim contract’
as,
‘
a
contract, not being a current tendered contract, for the operation of
a subsidised scheduled service, the term of which expires
after the
date of the commencement of this Act, and which-
(a)
was concluded before that date between the province and the
Department on the one hand, and the public transport operator who is
to operate that service, on the other hand, and is still binding
between them or only binding between the province and that operator;
or
(b)
is binding between that public transport operator and any transport
authority or a core city or a municipality, due to the assignment
to
it, after the date of commencement of this Act, of the rights and
obligations of the province under the contract contemplated
in
paragraph (a).’
There
is no evidence on the papers that the Gauteng Province has assigned
Interim Contract 48/97 to the City, and the intergovernmental
agreement contains no such assignment. It follows that Interim
Contract 48/97 is one between the GDRT and Putco, as envisaged in
s
46(1) of the NLTA. The intergovernmental agreement cannot, and does
not, change the statutory position.
[17]
The high court thus rightly held that the provisions of s 46 are
inapplicable
in this case because Interim Contract 48/97 is between
the GDRT and Putco, not between the City and Putco. Thus, the
submissions
on behalf of Putco that the absence of a contract between
it and the City ‘is no obstacle to the applicability of section
46’; and that ‘section 46 by design, superimposes itself
onto, and disrupts, existing contractual relationships’,
are
incorrect.
[18]
The application to adduce further evidence on appeal must accordingly
be refused.
By reason of the conclusion to which I have come, it is
unnecessary to consider the remaining ground of opposition to that
application:
the issue of mootness. In any event, the City has not
tendered any evidence concerning the contracts allegedly concluded
with transport
operators after the interdict was refused, or the
current status of Phase 1C(a) of the Rea Vaya System, in order for
this Court
to determine whether an interdict would no longer serve
any purpose.
[19]
I return to the main issue – the proper construction of ss 41
and 46
of the NLTA. These provisions read in relevant part:
‘
41 Negotiated
contracts
(1)
Contracting authorities may enter into negotiated contracts with
operators in their areas, once only, with a view to-
(a)
integrating
services forming part of integrated public transport networks in
terms of their integrated transport plans;
(b)
promoting
the economic empowerment of small business or of persons previously
disadvantaged by unfair discrimination; or
(c)
facilitating
the restructuring of a parastatal or municipal transport operator to
discourage monopolies.
(2)
The negotiations envisaged by subsections (1) and (2) must where
appropriate include operators in the area subject to interim
contracts, subsidised service contracts, commercial service
contracts, existing negotiated contracts and operators of unscheduled
services and non-contracted services.
(3)
A negotiated contract contemplated in subsection (1) or (2) shall be
for a period of not longer than 12 years.
(4)
The contracts contemplated in subsection (1) shall not preclude a
contracting authority from inviting tenders for services forming
part
of the relevant network.
(5)
Contracting authorities must take appropriate steps on a timeous
basis before expiry of such negotiated contract to ensure that
the
services are put out to tender in terms of section 42 in such a way
as to ensure unbroken service delivery to passengers.
. .
.
46 Existing
contracting arrangements
(1)
Where there is an existing interim contract, current tendered
contract or negotiated contract as defined in the Transition Act
in
the area of the relevant contracting authority, that authority may-
(a)
allow
the contract to run its course; or
(b)
negotiate
with the operator to amend the contract to provide for inclusion of
the operator in an integrated public transport network;
or
(c)
make
a reasonable offer to the operator of alternative services, or of a
monetary settlement, which offer must bear relation to
the value of
the unexpired portion of the contract, if any.
(2)
If the parties cannot agree on amendment of the contract or on
inclusion of the operator in such a network, or the operator
fails or
refuses to accept such an offer, the matter must be referred to
mediation or arbitration in the prescribed manner to resolve
the
issue.
(3)
The Minister may make regulations providing for the transition of
existing contracting arrangements and the transfer of the
contracting
function in terms of this section or section 41, including the
transfer or amendment of existing permits or operating
licences to
give effect to its provisions in the case of an assignment under
section 11(2).
.
. .’
[20]
These provisions make it plain that there is a clear distinction
between contracts
entered into in terms of s 41, and ‘existing
contracting arrangements’ to which s 46 applies. The NLTA
assigns the
responsibility for the conclusion of s 41 contracts
to the municipal sphere of government. Section 11(1)
(c)
of the
NLTA provides:
‘
The
municipal sphere of government is responsible for –
.
. .
(xxvi)
concluding subsidised service contracts, commercial service
contracts, and negotiated contracts contemplated in section 41(1)
with operators for services within their areas;’.
[21]
The
purposes of negotiated contracts are set out in s 41(1)
(a)
,
(b)
and
(c)
,
which include integrating services forming part of an IPTN in terms
of a municipality’s integrated transport plan, and discouraging
monopolies. These are entirely new contracts negotiated in terms of
the NLTA. The contracting authority, the City, is obliged under
s
41(2) to negotiate – not to reach an agreement with an operator
who has an interim contract. None of the operators with
whom the City
negotiates under s 41 has any pre-existing right to render a
public transport service when it embarks on negotiations.
As this
Court has said, s 41 ‘facilitates the quick implementation of
the transport system within a municipality’.
[10]
This interpretation is buttressed by the immediate context: s 41(4)
provides that the power to conclude negotiated contracts
under s
41(1) shall not preclude a municipality from inviting tenders for the
relevant services.
[22]
Section 46
on the other hand, deals with contracts concluded before the
commencement of the NLTA and regulates existing rights.
[11]
Its purpose is to ensure that existing contracts do not stand in the
way of the conclusion and implementation of new contracts
under the
NLTA.
[23]
Flowing
from the different situations to which ss 41 and 46 apply, there are
two kinds of negotiations envisaged by the NLTA: (i)
those which
precede the conclusion of s 41 contracts; and (ii) negotiations that
take place in terms of s 46(1)
(b)
to amend existing interim contracts. The negotiations under s 41
are aimed at the conclusion of once-off contracts for a maximum
period of 12 years, and obviate the need for the contracting
authority (a municipality) to tender for public transport
services.
[12]
Given its
purposes, s 41 makes no provision for disputes that may arise out of
s 41 negotiations to be referred to mediation or
arbitration, and for
good reason. As is evidenced by the NFA, these negotiations are
technical, complex, and involve existing competitors
(minibus taxi
operators and bus operators), all with competing interests. The
potential for disputes is manifest. In this case
the City and
transport operators have been engaged in protracted negotiations for
several years – since 2017.
[24]
If Putco,
or any negotiating party, could declare a dispute and demand its
resolution by mediation or arbitration, the City could
become bogged
down in endless mediation and arbitration proceedings, and it would
be impossible to reach timely s 41 contracts.
This, in turn, would
prevent the City from carrying out its duties under s 40 of the NLTA,
which enjoins planning authorities ‘as
soon as possible . . .
to integrate services subject to contracts in their areas’,
after the commencement of the NTLA –
8 December 2009.
[13]
So too, since s 41 concerns the negotiation of new contracts, there
can be no disputes to resolve in respect of existing
rights. There is
simply a process to negotiate new contracts which will either result
in agreement or fail in that endeavour.
[25]
Section 46(2) of the NLTA, by contrast, mandates the settlement of
disputes
by mediation and arbitration where, for example,
negotiations for the amendment of an existing interim contract as
envisaged in
s 46(1) have failed. Section 46(1) grants a contracting
authority (in this case, the GDRT) three alternative options to deal
with
the difficulties created by an existing interim contract, when
an IPTN is introduced by way of a section 41 contract. The authority
may (a) allow the contract to run its course; (b) negotiate an
amendment of the contract with the operator to provide for its
inclusion in an IPTN; or (c) make a reasonable offer of alternative
services or a monetary settlement to the operator. The authority
has
a discretion as to which option to exercise.
[26]
Negotiations to amend an existing interim contract under s 46(1)
(b)
of the NLTA must be conducted by the parties to that contract: after
all, only they can ‘agree on the amendment of the contract’
contemplated in s 46(2). However, counsel for Putco submitted that
the City is bound by the provisions of s 46(2), for the following
reasons. Putco’s existing interim contract is ‘in the
area of the relevant contracting authority’, ie the City,
within the meaning of s 46(1). The negotiations and the contract
which resulted in Putco’s contract for Phase 1B of the Rea
Vaya
system were done in terms of s 46, as it is the holder of an
existing interim contract. The City’s offer to Putco
of a 0.27%
shareholding in a new bus operating company, constitutes inclusion in
an IPTN under s 46(1)
(b)
; or an offer of a monetary
settlement as envisaged in s 46(1)
(c)
of the NLTA.
[27]
These submissions are unsustainable for three reasons. First, they
are insupportable
on the facts. The NFA makes it clear that
negotiations were conducted with the view to the conclusion of s 41
contracts. Putco
itself invoked the dispute resolution procedures of
the NFA. Moreover, the answering affidavit states that Phases 1A and
1B of
the Rea Vaya System were concluded through negotiated contracts
in terms of s 41. This was not disputed by Putco, save for a
contention
that s 41 and s 46 ‘are not mutually exclusive’.
The offer to Putco of a 0.27% shareholding in a new bus operating
company is an offer to enter into a negotiated contract under s 41(1)
of the NLTA, pursuant to the negotiations envisaged in
s 41(2).
[28]
Second, s
46 of the NLTA does not grant a municipality any power to conclude a
contract for a public transport service: that power
is conferred by
s 11(1)
(c)
(xxvi),
in terms of which a municipality may only enter into the contracts
specified in that provision. The principle of legality
dictates that
a body exercising public power must act within the powers lawfully
conferred on it.
[14]
Putco’s
submission that the City concludes negotiated contracts under s 41,
with operators who do not have existing interim
contracts, but that
it does so with Putco in terms of s 46, is both illogical and at odds
with the scheme of s 41 of the NLTA.
[29]
Third, as
already stated, the authority vested with the power in s 46 cannot be
the municipality because that power is conferred
on the entity which
concluded the existing contract; hence ‘that authority’
is given the three alternative options
to deal with an existing
interim contract in s 46(1)
(a)
-
(c)
.
In addition, Putco’s construction disregards the assignment of
responsibilities to the three spheres of government in s
11(1) of the
NLTA. It states that the national sphere of government is the acting
authority for interim contracts concluded in
terms of the Transition
Act; and that where a province is performing a function contemplated
in s 11(1)
(a)
on the date of commencement of the NLTA, it must continue to do so
unless the Minister of Transport has assigned that function
to a
municipality.
[15]
[30]
The dispute
between Putco and the City relates to Phase 1C(a) of the Rea Vaya
System, which is regulated by a s 41 contract. It
is not a dispute
envisaged in s 46(2) of the NLTA. Reading the dispute resolution
mechanism in s 46(2) as applying to negotiated
contracts under s 41,
disregards the different objects of ss 41 and 46, and would
impose a contract on parties who have not
agreed to its terms, which
is inimical to the scheme of s 41 of the NLTA.
[16]
[31]
Putco’s argument that it is entitled to invoke the dispute
resolution
mechanism in regulation 7 of the Regulations against the
City to resolve the dispute arising from negotiations relating to a s
41 contract, can be dealt with shortly. As stated above, Interim
Contract 48/97 is between Putco and the GDRT, not the City, and
s 46
of the NLTA does not apply to contracts negotiated under s 41. That
being so, Putco cannot invoke a regulation that gives
effect to
s 46(2), as the basis for the grant of an interdict.
[32]
In the result, the following order is issued:
1
The application to adduce further evidence is refused with costs,
including the costs
of two counsel.
2
The appeal is dismissed with costs, including the costs of two
counsel.
__________________
A SCHIPPERS
JUDGE OF APPEAL
Appearances:
For
appellant:
A
E Franklin SC and J Mitchell
Instructed
by:
Bowman
Gilfillan Incorporated, Johannesburg
McIntyre
Van der Post Incorporated, Bloemfontein
For
first respondent:
V
Notshe SC and AM Rakhutla
Instructed
by:
Poswa
Incorporated, Johannesburg
Poswa
Incorporated, Bloemfontein
[1]
The NLTA defines ‘planning authority’ as meaning ‘a
municipality in relation to its planning functions’.
[2]
Clause 14 of the negotiation framework agreement provides:
‘
DISPUTE
RESOLUTION
14.1
In the event that the Parties are unable to reach agreement within a
reasonable
time, the Independent Facilitators will be requested to
propose and execute a dispute resolution mechanism which can involve
further internal or external mediation or facilitation and/or
non-binding expert determination;
14.2
A dispute should be declared only after the Parties have extensively
canvassed
an issue and exhausted their own efforts. The Independent
Facilitators should make a determination in this regard.
14.3
Facilitators may propose that the Core Group becomes involved;
14.4
In the event that the Core Group, including Elders becomes involved,
clear terms
of reference of the role should be proposed by the
Independent Facilitators. . . .
14.5
In the event that the above does not succeed, the Parties will
revert to their
principals for a further mandate in respect of the
matter which had led to deadlock or a further dispute resolution
process which
could be binding.’
[3]
The regulations are published under GN R877 in
GG
32535, 31 August 2009.
[4]
Golden
Arrow Bus Services (Pty) Ltd v City of Cape Town and Others
[2013]
ZASCA 154
;
[2014] 1 All SA 627
(SCA) (
Golden
Arrow Bus Services
).
[5]
Ibid paras 11 and 14.
[6]
Philip
Morris Inc and Another v Marlboro Shirt Co SA Ltd and Another
[1991] 2 All SA 177
(A) at 187;
Stauffer
Chemicals Chemical Products Division of Chesebrough-Ponds (Pty) Ltd
v Monsanto Company
[1988] 3 All SA 279
(T) at 283.
[7]
Rail
Commuters Action Group and Others v Transnet Ltd t/a Metrorail and
Others
[2004] ZACC 20
;
2005 (2) SA 359
(CC) para 41, following
Colman
v Dunbar
1933 AD 141
at 161-3.
[8]
See Van Loggerenberg
Erasmus
Superior
Court Practice
at A2-70–A2-72B and the authorities collected in fn 7.
[9]
KPMG
Chartered Accountants (SA) v Securefin Ltd and Another
[2009] ZASCA 7
;
2009 (4) SA 399
(SCA) para 39.
[10]
Golden
Arrow Bus Services
fn
4 para 11.
[11]
Ibid paras 11 and 13.
[12]
Ibid para 11.
[13]
Golden
Arrow Bus Services (Pty) Ltd v City of Cape Town
2013 JDR 0828 (WCC) para 27.
[14]
Fedsure
Life Assurance Ltd v Greater Johannesburg Transitional Council
[1998] ZACC 17
;
1999 (1) SA 374
(CC) paras 56 and 58.
[15]
Section 11(1) of the NLTA provides:
‘
(1)
The responsibility of the three spheres of government are as
follows:
(a)
The national
sphere of government is responsible for-
. . .
(xi) acting as
contracting authority for subsidised service contracts, interim
contracts, current tendered contracts and negotiated
contracts
concluded in terms of the Transition Act;
. . .
(6)
Subject to section 21, where a province is performing a function
contemplated in subsection 1
(a)
on the date of commencement
of this Act, it must continue performing that function, unless that
function is assigned to a municipality
by the Minister in terms of
this Act.’
[16]
Golden
Arrow Bus Services
fn 4 para 26.
sino noindex
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