The legal battle over payment of outstanding bus subsidies to Gauteng bus operators continued in the Pretoria High Court on Monday.
Counsel for the Department of Transport and the South African Bus Operators Association (Saboa), among others, spent the afternoon in court debating whether or not subsidy payments for November 2008 had been paid, as ordered by the court last Thursday.
”I think they misinterpreted the court order,” said Saboa’s executive manager Eric Cornelius.
When asked if perhaps the payments had been made but had not yet been reflected in the operator’s accounts, Cornelius said the order was very clear.
”It’s very clear that payments must be with the operators already by last week Friday by 12 midnight.
”The payments had to be paid into the accounts of the operators.”
It was agreed that both parties submit their financial records and schedules to the opposing legal counsels by 1pm on Tuesday to verify what had been paid and how much was still outstanding.
Cornelius said according to Saboa’s records three to four operators had not received any payments, while some had received their November subsidy but not the interest accrued — about 15,5% of the total amount.
He said the subsidy alone to operators for November was about R120-million. This amount plus previous amounts owed to one other operator and the interest to all the operators amounted to about R300-million.
Referring to an application to be brought before the high court on Wednesday — pertaining to R1,2-billion in outstanding subsidies to operators nationally — Cornelius said the situation had reached a critical stage.
The application is for payment of subsidies for December, January, February and March.
”If there’s no payment services will be withdrawn, there is no doubt. The operators cannot continue operating if they don’t receive those subsidies.
”Those subsidies represent about 50% of their revenue,” he said.
In the meantime, operations are continuing despite becoming increasingly difficult, he said.
”The December to March payment is crucial. If we can’t come to an agreement on those amounts then services will be in jeopardy.” — Sapa