An agreement, endorsed by the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, has been reached between Agri Eastern Cape and the province's department of roads, whereby R15 million has been made available for the repair of identified roads within the next six months.
Last year, the Eastern Cape Department of Roads appealed against a ruling in the Grahamstown High Court that it must perform its duties, and repair the sorry state of rural roads in the province.
Agri Eastern Cape President Douglas Stern told Algoa FM News that the Supreme Court of Appeal also ruled on Wednesday that the agricultural organisation would now be part of the annual provincial budgetary process.
"Agri Eastern Cape has been made part of the annual budgetary process for roads but it was also agreed that there would be ongoing judicial supervision by the court in Grahamstown of the progress being made by the roads department as agreed to by Agri Eastern Cape," said Stern. "In our opinion, this is tantamount to a tremendous victory for our members of Agri Eastern Cape."
Stern said the ruling was the successful culmination of a legal battle they've been waging with the Department of Roads for a number of years. "We have been fighting this thing for years now and all we were asking of them is to do their work and in that agreement, they are basically saying, yes, we will do our work."
