Tasima loses bid to appeal eviction order

Tasima, which developed the country’s national electronic management system (eNatis), has lost its bid to appeal against a High Court order that it must immediately vacate the premises and hand over control of the system.

Judge Neil Tuchten on Wednesday dismissed Tasima’s application for leave to appeal against his ruling on Monday that they must immediately vacate the Midrand premises from which the system is run and hand over all access keys, access codes, source codes and data to the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC).

“One thing you can’t change is orders of the constitutional court. I’m brave but not that brave.

“… Like a recently appointed politician said, I don’t question, I just carry on.

“… The application has no reasonable prospects of success,” the Judge said.

Counsel for Tasima Paul McNally SC argued that Judge Tuchten had granted relief he was not entitled to grant.

He said the constitutional court order did not only give Tasima 30 days to leave, but made it clear that the transfer had to take place in terms of an agreed management plan, and if they could not agree, in terms of a migration plan.

McNally submitted that RTMC and Tasima had already taken giant strides towards agreeing on a management plan, but RTMC approached the court when these negotiations reached an impasse.

This, he argued, meant that both parties agreed that there had to be a transfer plan in place.

He said there were 2 400 sites from which the system was operated – each with a myriad of equipment and licenses – and there were at least 48 third party service providers, which had to be dealt with.

“The effect of the order is that what will happen is exactly what the constitutional court didn’t want, which is transfer without a plan. The public interest is not protected by a precipitous handover.

“… It’s important for Tasima to act expeditiously. It’s at immense risk that it’s spending an immense amount of money per months, which it might not be able to recover. But it can’t simply walk out,” he said.

Counsel for RTMC argued that there was nothing new in Tasima’s arguments, which had already all been dismissed by the Constitutional Court.

The Constitutional Court in November last year gave Tasima 30 days to hand over the system and leave, and in February, the it dismissed Tasima’s application for a variation or clarification of its order.

The courts have already pronounced against Tasima on eight occasions and Tasima and RTMC have been involved in over 20 different court applications – often when Tasima claimed it had not been paid what it was owed.

They’re presently at loggerheads about invoices totalling R100 million, which Tasima said it was owed, but which RTMC refused to pay.