The developer of the proposed Port of Gauteng inland port, has launched a legal challenge against environmental approvals granted to the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport (GDRT) for the construction of provincial road K148.
Francois Nortjé, founder of NT55 Investments, has filed an application in the Gauteng High Court seeking a judicial review of the decision-making process.
The road is planned to run from the TotalEnergies filling station on the N3 southwards to an area north of the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve.
NT55 Investments has already obtained an interdict that prevents GDRT from proceeding with the K148 construction. GDRT is appealing this interdict, with the hearing scheduled for February 17.
This comes after Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) Judge Bashier Vally dismissed NT55's application to set aside the Environmental Impact Record of Decision on April 16, 2024. An appeal against that judgment is set to be heard on February 3-4.
The challenge centres on alleged procedural, legal and environmental irregularities in the environmental authorisation process.
The original Environmental Authorisation was granted on December 13, 2016 to Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality for the construction of road K148 between roads K146 and K133 (N3/K148 interchange). It included specific conditions, such as excluding development on the floodplain and findings relating to a 30-metre buffer from the wetland boundary due to sensitivity.
Nortjé has alleged that the approved road design encroaches on the sensitive wetland ecosystem hosting five Red Data bird species, critical watercourses and environmental buffers.
“There are material inconsistencies and omissions in the approvals process. In the base environmental application for the land development, environmental specialists appointed by the developer of that land originally recommended a 200-metre buffer around the wetland due to its ecological importance and sensitivity,” Nortjé said.
“This was inexplicably reduced to 30 metres by officials in the Department of Environmental Affairs in the development’s environmental application approval in 2012.”
In 2020, following NT55's interdict application, GDRT sought an amendment, adding seven more properties that had been omitted and changing the holder from Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality to GDRT. The amendment addendum removed conditions relating to the road encroaching the watercourse.
Nortjé alleged that these removals occurred without proper application or public participation.
In a June 2022 affidavit, then MEC Parks Tau described conflicting conditions as “clearly an error that had to be addressed”.
“The intention was, from the outset, to authorise the construction for the whole section of this provincial road and in relation thereto, for the specific listed activities to lawfully commence,” Tau said.
Nortjé has also raised an alleged conflict with section 9 of the Gauteng Transport Infrastructure Act, which restricts environmental authorisations in areas with gazetted preliminary designs.
“The environmental impact of this proposed road has been clearly articulated and is significant.
“Yet the Department of Environmental Affairs appears to have supported a process that falls short of both environmental law and administrative justice. Our position is simple: infrastructure must be built within the law. There are statutory steps that remain outstanding and cannot be bypassed.”
The case highlights tensions between competing inland port projects in Gauteng with the K148 road, key to accessing the rival Tambo Springs hub.
