Private gated estates are entitled to draw up their own rules, including setting speed limits on internal roads and imposing ‘fines’ for exceeding them, the SCA ruled yesterday, according to a TimesLIVE report.

The ruling, by Judge Visvanathan Ponnan (with four judges concurring), overturned a previous judgment delivered by judges in KZN who declared invalid ‘road rules’ at Durban’s luxury 890-unit Mount Edgecombe estate, saying the management association was usurping the role of the Transport MEC and local municipality.

The matter became a legal test when estate resident Niemesh Singh refused to pay three fines (totalling R3 000) his daughter received for topping the 40 km/ph speed limit. The estate association was backed by the Association of Residential Communities – representing 300 estates – when it took the matter to the SCA.

Ponnan said in the lower court, the association had incorrectly conceded that the roads in the estate were ‘public roads’ and were subject to the National Road Traffic Act. But, he said, it was clear that they were not public roads.

‘The estate is a private township which constructed its own roads.'

Ponnan said even if they were public roads, the approach of the High Court was wrong.

‘They reasoned that the association was usurping the functions of traffic authorities by erecting traffic signs and speed humps. But the relationship between an owner and the association is a private, contractual one. It cannot be said that by ordaining a lower speed limit within a gated estate than that prescribed by national legislation goes beyond promoting, advancing and protecting the interests of residents, or is unreasonable, especially given the presence of children and wildlife.’

Full TimesLIVE report