Court denies application for leave to appeal temporary interdict on deal between Transnet and ICTSI
The KwaZulu-Natal High Court in South Africa has denied an International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI) application for leave, to appeal an interdict which temporarily stops Transnet from implementing the public-private partnership agreement with ICTSI.
The decision of the Court was handed down this morning (11 December).
Quick to respond to the ruling, ICTSI said it was ”disappointed” by the decision.
“The agreement to operate the Durban Container Terminal Pier 2 was awarded to ICTSI after a rigorous, transparent, and fair bidding process in 2023 and was interdicted in March 2024,” it said in a statement.
“The denial of the right to appeal the interdict was not wholly unexpected as Transnet unusually chose not to appeal the Interdict.
”The interdict was granted against Transnet, stopping the state-owned entity from implementing the private-public partnership pending a full court review next year, making it challenging for ICTSI to be granted leave to appeal the interdict,” ICTSI continued.
“However, ICTSI felt it had no choice but to challenge the interdict because the legal judgment which led to the awarding of the interdict contained a number of legal errors that were damaging to ICTSI’s reputation.
”ICTSI is a well-regarded publicly listed company successfully operating 32 terminals in 19 countries,” the company noted.
It maintained that the reasoning underpinning the interdict stemmed from a ”fundamental misunderstanding” of the technical financial metrics at the heart of the matter, and that the evidence provided by Transnet and ICTSI to the court had not been considered.
ICTSI believed that the denial of leave to appeal represented a missed opportunity to rectify errors, but said it would continue to vigorously defend its position when the main case is heard in March 2025.
The interim interdict had halted a major infrastructure project needed to ensure the country’s largest container port runs smoothly and increases exports from South Africa, it explained.
“Delays in setting up a private-public partnership substantially weaken the South African economy and the sooner the country addresses weaknesses at the ports, the better,” ICTSI commented.
”It is unfortunate that arguing over a non-material and non-defined technicality will delay fixing the country’s main container terminal.”
The attention will now shift to March 2025 when the real battle begins in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court.
In the meantime, long-awaited changes at the Container Terminal in Durban will be delayed further.
