The South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) appealed a judgment over the right to toll the N1 and the N2 highways at the Supreme Court of Appeal on Tuesday. The judgment had been in favour of the City of Cape Town.

On September 30 last year, the Western Cape High Court reviewed and set aside approvals that would enable Sanral to go ahead with tolling on those highways in the Winelands district.

City of Cape Town Councillor Brett Heron said in a statement that Sanral had launched an appeal against that judgment, and the city had defended its position.Judgment was reserved after Tuesday's argument.

Herron said the City's point was that according to the Sanral Act, only the Sanral board can declare a toll road, and the board allegedly did not do this. The board was also not given the information to do so, he said. The public's complaints and objections - which formed 99% of the comments - were not presented to the board either, he continued.

He added that although the national government can decide how road infrastructure is funded, Sanral must follow due process and act within the law.

The City of Cape Town would take the issue to the Constitutional Court if necessary.

Comment from Sanral was not immediately available, but last September in a statement it said there had been speculation and misinformation about the funding model to be used on the project.

Its Western Cape regional manager Kobus van der Walt said the initial cost of works would be R10-billion, R2-billion short of Sanral's total allocation per annum.

"The notion that Sanral should fund this project from its own resources is therefore uninformed. This year we received a total allocation of R12.5-billion to look after the entire national road network. Clearly we cannot take all of it to do one project in one province."

Van der Walt also said the Western Cape is the only province that has permission from National Treasury to implement a fuel levy to finance roads, but it has not been implemented to date.