Legal battle puts environmental compliance and due process under scrutiny
Francois Nortjé, founder of NT55 Investments and developer of the Port of Gauteng, has launched legal action in the Gauteng High Court challenging the legality of environmental approvals granted for the proposed K148 road by the Gauteng Department of Environmental Affairs to the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport.
Nortjé and NT55 Investments have also secured an interdict preventing the Department of Roads and Transport from proceeding with construction of the K148. The Department is appealing the granting of the interdict, with the appeal hearing scheduled for 17 February 2026.
The legal challenge follows a complex procedural history. In April 2025, Judge Bashier Valley, presiding in the Johannesburg Division of the Gauteng High Court, dismissed an application by Nortjé and NT55 to set aside the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Record of Decision. An appeal against that judgment is currently on the court roll for 3 and 4 February.
The proposed K148 road is planned to run from the TotalEnergies filling station on the N3 southwards to an area north of the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve. Nortjé’s application seeks both an interdict and a judicial review of the decision-making process that enabled the project to proceed, citing alleged procedural, legal and environmental irregularities.
Environmental and Procedural Concerns
According to Nortjé, the approved road alignment enters a sensitive wetland ecosystem that supports five Red Data bird species, as well as critical watercourses and environmental buffers.
“There are material inconsistencies and omissions in the approvals process,” says Nortjé. “In the base environmental application for the land development, environmental specialists appointed by the developer of that land originally recommended a 200-metre buffer around the wetland due to its ecological importance and sensitivity.
“This was inexplicably reduced to 30 metres by officials in the Department of Environmental Affairs in the development’s environmental application approval in 2012.”
In 2015, the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport submitted an environmental application for construction of the K148 through the protected wetland area. The original EIA Record of Decision contained contradictory conditions, approving the overall application while refusing development on the floodplain. It also confirmed a 30-metre buffer due to environmental sensitivity.
Following Nortjé’s interdict application, the Department applied in 2020 to amend the Record of Decision to include seven additional properties omitted from the original application. When the amended Record was issued in January 2021, key conditions and findings relating to wetland sensitivity and buffer requirements were removed without a new application process or public participation.
Allegations of a Predetermined Outcome
The review application further raises concerns about compliance with the Gauteng Transport Infrastructure Act, which explicitly prohibits environmental approvals where preliminary designs have already been gazetted. The K148 preliminary design was gazetted in the early 2000s.
Additional anomalies cited include the removal of findings on environmental risk, failure to assess the sewerage plant over which the road will be built, and the omission of the Transnet Petroleum Pipeline from Heidelberg to Alberton from the environmental scoping process.
When these issues were raised during the review, the then MEC for Economic Development, Environment, Agriculture and Rural Development, Parks Tau, stated in a June 2022 answering affidavit: “The intention was, from the outset, to authorise the construction for the whole section of this provincial road, and in relation thereto, for the specific listed activities to commence.”
Nortjé argues that this statement confirms that approval of the full road alignment was predetermined, despite acknowledged environmental sensitivities.
Call for Lawful Development
“The environmental impact of this proposed road has been clearly articulated and is significant,” Nortjé said. “Yet the Department of Environmental Affairs appears to have supported a process that falls short of both environmental law and administrative justice.”
He noted that the newly appointed MEC, Ewan Botha, who assumed office in 2025, has a legal obligation to ensure compliance with environmental legislation and to protect sensitive ecosystems.
NT55 maintains that the legal action is not intended to block development, but to ensure that infrastructure projects proceed lawfully and responsibly.
“Our position is simple: infrastructure must be built within the law. There are statutory steps that remain outstanding and cannot be bypassed,” Nortjé said.
According to NT55, these include outstanding environmental applications under the National Environmental Management Act, failure to obtain approvals for all affected properties, and the absence of required water use licences for construction within the wetland and relocation of the sewerage plant.
Despite these unresolved legal requirements, the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport is proceeding with its appeal against the interdict, with the hearing set for 17 February.