The Supreme Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) over the right to toll the Winelands route.

“The application for leave to appeal against the refusal to admit further affidavits is dismissed with cost, including the costs of two counsel,” it said on Thursday.

Sanral appealed a judgment over the right to toll the N1 and the N2 highways in August.

The judgment was in favour of the City of Cape Town.

City of Cape Town councillor Brett Heron said in a statement that Sanral had launched an appeal against that judgment, and the city defended its position.

The city’s stance is that according to the Sanral Act, only the Sanral board can declare a toll road. The board allegedly did not do this.

Sanral previously said in a statement that 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, R2bn short of Sanral’s total allocation per annum.

Van der Walt said the Western Cape was the only province that had permission from National Treasury to implement a fuel levy to finance roads but had not implemented this.

Reporting by Jeanette Chabalala