B Cele on court proceedings regarding SA Roadlink

13 January 2009

Ladies and gentlemen of the media I preside over this press briefing this
morning for the first time in 2009 on the matter that has been a fiery issue
since the 16 December 2008 when 11 people were brutally killed in a horrific
accident involving a bus from SA Roadlink. It is on this score that as
government we shall continue to act decisively on matters that are in the
interest of the public that we serve, hence our legislative mandate is that of
ensuring safety of our citizens in the province by providing a public transport
system that is safe, affordable, efficient and effective; for this reason all
our strategies and operations are geared towards achieving these fundamental
goals.

Pursuant to the media briefing held at Elangeni Hotel, on 18 December 2008 a
letter was addressed to SA Road Link advising them of the imposition of a
moratorium on their operations in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.

On 19 December 2008 SA Road Link launched an urgent application in the Natal
provincial division of the High Court seeking certain relief against
moratorium. At the time the papers were served SA Roadlink management had
requested a meeting with myself which meeting did not take place as the matter
was scheduled to be heard at 14h00 on the same day, 19 December 2008.Due to
limited time we could not file an answering affidavit before 14h00 .

At the hearing the department legal representative requested time from the
court to file answering affidavit to the application as many of the facts
alleged in the affidavits filed by SA Roadlink required to be dealt with so
that the issues could be properly ventilated before the matter could be
meaningfully adjudicated upon by the court. In particular the department
required time to put its side of the story before court; unfortunately the
department was not afforded the opportunity to file such answering
affidavit.

The matter was however heard and judgment was granted in terms of the draft
order which order was to the effect that the moratorium be suspended pending
answering and replying affidavits being filed by the parties on 28 December
2008 and 5 January 2009 respectively.

On consultation with my legal team and looking at what dictated the decision
of the honourable judge to grant the order sort, and based on those reasons I
decided to withdraw the moratorium imposed on SA Roadlink. The reason for the
withdrawal was dictated primarily from the judge’s prima facie views as
expressed in his judgment that before moratorium was imposed the procedures in
the promotion of Administrative Justice Act should have been followed.

Although I feel that the decision which I had taken justified by the
circumstances which existed when such decision was taken, I have nonetheless
heeded the honourable judge’s view and decided to err on the side of caution
and withdraw the moratorium with the reservation as I have expressed.

This withdrawal of the moratorium was done with a full reservation of the
Department’s rights and particularly the rights which vest in me to pursue all
legal channels that are available to the Department and. to take whatever legal
action against SA Roadlink for its past, present and future transgressions.

I will provide you ladies and gentlemen with a copy of a letter addressed to
Roadlink attorneys from my legal team which is self explanatory. As we have
indicated in that letter that we reserve the right to pursue action against SA
Roadlink in accordance and compliance with the legal channels available to us
as government.

There has been an enormous public outcry on this matter and as government we
cannot fold our arms whilst the safety of our commuters is being compromised in
the interest of companies making profit. Meticulous legal processes have
commenced in pursuing this matter further, I am not in a position to outline
the processes due to its sensitivity however you will learn about them in due
course.

I thank you

For more information contact:
Nonkululeko Mbatha
Cell: 083 645 6252

Issued by: Department of Transport, Community Safety and Liaison,
KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
13 January 2009
Source: Department of Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, KwaZulu-Natal
Provincial Government (http://www.kzntransport.gov.za/)