The South African National Roads Agency Limited’s (Sanral’s) application to the Western Cape High Court for certain aspects of the Winelands Toll project to be kept confidential related to the integrity of the tender process, Sanral explained on Monday.

Sanral CEO Vusi Mona said the agency had no desire to withhold information that would make it possible for it to account for stewardship of the resources under its control, adding that the organisation was required by Parliament to account for the manner in which public resources are used.

"However, before the [tender] process has been finalised, we believe there is a case for confidentiality,” he stated.

He explained that Sanral respected the integrity of the tender process as “the benefits attaching to such plans or tenders have not yet been secured and a competitive tender process may be at risk of being usurped by others if disclosed prematurely”.

The roads agency pointed out that, to date, the tender had not been awarded to any of the bidders, with the Protea Parkways Consortium (PPC) only having been identified as the preferred bidder.

Further, the agency also said accusations that it was refusing to disclose the tariffs of the new toll system were misguided as these tariffs still had to be declared by the Transport Minister.

The application by Sanral to keep certain tolling documentation secret was heard in a closed session at the high court in Cape Town on Monday.

Nongovernmental organisation (NGO) Right2Know (R2K) Campaign said on Monday afternoon that it, along with fellow NGOs Section 16 and the Open Democracy Advice Centre, had intervened requesting a redacted version of the court case’s papers be released.

R2K said it appeared that the City of Cape Town and the preferred bidder PPC, were not opposing the release of a redacted version of these court papers; however, Sanral had refused to agree to this compromise.