Johannesburg – Francois Nortjé, founder of NT55 Investments and developer of the proposed Port of Gauteng, has taken the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport and the Gauteng Department of Environmental Affairs to court over the controversial K148 road project.
Nortjé has filed a review application in the Gauteng High Court challenging the legality of environmental approvals granted for the road, while NT55 has secured an interdict preventing construction from proceeding. The Department of Roads and Transport is appealing the interdict, with the matter set down for hearing on 17 February 2026.
The dispute follows an April 2025 ruling by Judge Bashier Valley, who dismissed NT55’s application to set aside the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Record of Decision. An appeal against that judgment will be heard on 3 and 4 February 2026.
The K148 is planned to run from the Total Energies filling station on the N3 southwards towards land north of the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve. Nortjé argues that the approved alignment cuts through a sensitive wetland ecosystem that supports five Red Data bird species and critical watercourses.
According to NT55, environmental specialists originally recommended a 200-metre buffer around the wetland, which was later reduced to 30 metres without adequate justification. In 2021, key environmental conditions and findings relating to wetland sensitivity were removed from the EIA Record of Decision without a new application or public participation process.
NT55 further alleges that the approvals process was flawed and predetermined, citing failures to properly assess water use licences, additional affected properties, a sewerage plant, and a Transnet petroleum pipeline beneath the proposed road.
Nortjé maintains that the legal action is not intended to block development, but to ensure infrastructure projects comply with environmental law and administrative justice.
“We support development,” he said, “but it must be lawful, transparent and environmentally responsible.”
