The Road Traffic Management Corporation feels vindicated by the order handed down by the North Gauteng High Court instructing Tasima to immediately vacate the premises it currently occupies and hand-over control of the eNatis to the RTMC.
This comes after the RTMC had launched an urgent application to compel Tasima to hand-over the system, which is used to manage the registration, licensing and deregistration of vehicles, in keeping with an order issued by the Constitutional Court in November 9, 2016.
In a judgement handed down today, Justice N B Tuchten said if Tasima failed to comply with his order, “the Sheriff is authorised and directed to evict such respondents from the premises and to take all steps necessary, including using the services of specialist or expert service providers, to give effect to this order.”
The court rejected Tasima’s interpretation of the Constitutional Court decision which ordered them to hand-over the services of the eNatis system to the RTMC within 30 days.
Tasima had sought to convince the court that the intention of the Constitutional Court order was to provide an open ended period, the end of which could not be determined when the order was made.
“I reject the interpretation advanced by counsel for the respondents,” Justice Tuchten said.
“I find that the terms of the hand-over order, read with the judgments, are unambiguous. They require Tasima to complete the hand-over in 30 days. They do not permit Tasima to remain in place for any longer than that,” he said.
The court also dismissed Tasima counter-application in which it sought to be paid more than a R100 million for work done in relation to the system until the hand-over is complete.
Commenting on the outcome of the court application, the newly appointed Minister of Transport Mr Joe Maswanganyi reiterated that the RTMC had been ready since 2015 to administer the system.
“Their state of readiness has unreasonably been delayed and denied by Tasima employing tactics informed by their desire to syphon money from the State,” he said.
Maswanganyi said the fight to reclaim the system was informed by patriotism and supreme love to serve our country and “ensuring that the RTMC undertakes their mandate to execute and discharge their function in the best interest of all South Africans”.
Meanwhile Tasima has filed a notice to appeal the judgement. The RTMC will vigorously this appeal. The appeal application will be heard by the same judge on Wednesday April 5, 2017 in the North Gauteng High Court.
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