Five-year eNatis deal extension unlawful
The Constitutional Court yesterday found that a five-year extension won by a private company, Tasima, to run the national traffic information system in 2010 was unlawful, ordering the system be handed over to the Road Traffic Management Corporation within 30 days, notes a BusinessLIVE report. The court concluded that the contract violated the Constitution, the Public Finance Management Act, and Treasury regulations.
The report notes the long-running dispute over the Electronic National Traffic Information System (eNatis) had also sucked in former Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele, who was recently recalled from Australia, where he was SA’s ambassador. Ndebele is accused of receiving more than R10m in bribes from Tasima and is due to appear in the Commercial Crimes Court in December.
The department had approached the court after years of legal battles with Tasima. The source of tension was a five-year contract extension granted to Tasima in 2010, which the department contends it had contested. Also at play were the department’s repeated failures to pay Tasima, despite a court order to do so, as well as numerous interdicts won by the company seeking to compel payment.
The Constitutional Court wrote four judgments. In the majority judgment written by Justice Sisi Khampepe‚ where four other judges concurred‚ she said the extension of the contract in 2010 stood to be set aside. The judgment also upheld the principle that court orders stood until they were set aside. The court upheld contempt of court rulings brought against departmental officials.
'The courts find that the department’s reactive challenge should succeed. Despite this, the High Court orders and orders of contempt from the SCA should be upheld,' she said, according to a TimesLIVE report. ‘Nevertheless‚ in the period between the granting of the extension and its setting aside (May 2010 to August 2015)‚ the applicants were constitutionally obliged to comply with the various court orders granted‚’ Khampepe noted. She said in this case‚ not only was the extension of the contract between the department and Tasima unlawful‚ but it had now expired. ‘It can only be in the best interests of the public that the hand-over of the services and the eNaTIS to the corporation happens as expeditiously as possible.’
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