Cape Town – A court has handed down judgment in favour of the City of Cape Town, in its case against construction companies that colluded in the building of Cape Town Stadium, mayor Patricia de Lille said on Sunday.

She said the judgment by the North Gauteng High Court on Friday related to an objection by WBHO that the city could not rely on admissions made by other construction companies to prove its claim against WBHO.

The court dismissed its objection and ordered it to pay the city’s legal costs.

De Lille said this paved the way for the city to recover more than R500m in damages from the construction companies.

She did not agree with the settlement agreements that were made in respect of the collusion.

“We have said before that this ‘Tirisano Trust’ is a slush fund set up by national government for the private sector. Instead of compensating municipalities and ratepayers for the R 112bn loss that they incurred, this R 1.5bn trust has been  set up to help the private sector diversify instead of bringing justice to the residents of those municipalities.”

She said this was why the city decided to pursue the matter independently instead of relying on national government for proper recourse.