Court to hear DA e-toll case
The DA's bid to have legislation governing e-tolling declared unconstitutional will continue in the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday.
Jeremy Gauntlett, for President Jacob Zuma and the National Treasury, told the court on Tuesday that the Democratic Alliance's approach lacked critical context in terms of spheres of government.
"We have not adopted a federal state... There is no Vatican City in South Africa," he told Judge Owen Rogers.
"All of us necessarily work and carry out our lives in spheres of local, provincial and national government simultaneously."
He argued that the Transport Laws and Related Matters Amendment Bill did not pass the "substantial measure" test of being tagged as a matter for provincial debate in Parliament.
Zuma signed the amendment bill into law in September, in effect opening the way for e-tolling in Gauteng.
The bill was tagged as a section 75 bill -- to be debated only in the National Assembly -- rather than a section 76 bill, which is debated in both the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
The DA has applied to have the bill declared unconstitutional and invalid because it has not been passed according to what it deems to be proper procedure, which would be with input from the provinces.
-Sapa