The Special Investigating Unit has won its appeal to cancel the Amahlathi Local Municipality's R92m contract for the hire purchase of road construction equipment, concluding a decade of drama surrounding the agreement.

In 2013, the Eastern Cape's Amahlathi Local Municipality's city council, faced with the prospect of considerable embarrassment for failing to spend its municipal infrastructure grant on roads, made a surprising decision to buy R92-million in road fleet equipment.

There was no budget for it, no diesel and no skilled operators. Last week, a full bench of the Eastern Cape High Court ruled that the country's laws also did not allow for it.

But impressed by what a neighbouring municipality in Port St Johns had, the municipality decided that it could conclude a "piggyback" contract with Kwane Capital, the company responsible for selling road maintenance equipment to that municipality on hire purchase.

What followed was a decade of litigation that finally ended up with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) winning its case last week.

Appeal Court Judge Jannie Eksteen also ordered that the matter be referred back to the high court to ascertain exactly how much the contracting company, Kwane Capital, should pay back.

No budget

The claim related to a hire purchase agreement between Kwane and the Amahlathi Local Municipality for road construction vehicles, known in municipalities as...