A Gauteng businessman, Bart Dorrestein, on Monday lost his legal bid against the City of Johannesburg to secure and develop valuable publicly owned land in Sandton.

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), on a technical point, dismissed an appeal by Sandton Civic Precinct Consortium (Pty) Ltd, that wanted the rights to develop the Sandton Civic Precinct, a ten-acre piece of land in the heart of Sandton.

The company, with its largest shareholder, Dorrestein, secured the land through an Eastern Metropolitan Local Council (EMLC) resolution in 2000.

The City of Johannesburg took over from the EMLC in 2005 and decided not to proceed with the previous award.

It gave the development contract to the Bombela Consortium, currently responsible for the Gautrain Project.

Sandton Civic Precinct Consortium (Pty) Ltd went to court but the Johannesburg High Court dismissed its claim on the grounds that the 2000 resolution was not legally enforceable.

The high court held that the resolution was only a recommendation and created no legal rights.

The SCA held that Sandton Civic Precinct Consortium (Pty) Ltd, that was seeking to assert legal rights, did not have the legal standing to do so.

The court found that the company did not represent, and had no title to represent, the two black economic empowerment entities which were part of the consortium in 2000.

One BEE entity had in the meantime joined Bombela and the other was never incorporated into the consortium.

Nevertheless, the SCA did not as usual award the costs in favour of the successful party.

The court held there were enough reasons in the case for the company not to pay the city's costs.

The SCA held that the city's behaviour towards the company was consistently deplorable.

The court found that this was unacceptable behaviour by a public body.

In a step to mark its disapproval of the city's conduct, the court made no cost order.

The city must now pay its own legal fees in the high court as well as in the SCA.

Sapa