C W A Snyders N.O. as Trustee of the Louis Snyders Familie Trust v Louistef (Pty) Ltd and Another

The applicant trust owned immovable property in Brits which it leased to the first respondent, Louistef (Pty) Ltd, from 1991. Louistef operated a motor dealership and fuel filling station on the property. Following the Petroleum Products Amendment Act 58 of 2003 (PPA), Louistef obtained a site licence and a retail licence under the Act’s transitional provisions. When the lease was due to terminate in 2014, the Trust wished to continue operating the filling station. On legal advice, the parties concluded an agreement in March 2014 in terms of which Louistef sold its site licence to the Trust for R1 000 000 so that the Trust could obtain a retail licence. The Trust later challenged the validity of the sale, arguing that the site licence was not an asset capable of sale. The High Court declared the sale invalid, but the Supreme Court of Appeal reversed that decision and enforced the agreement. The Trust then applied for leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court.

The application for leave to appeal was dismissed with costs.

The case clarifies the legal nature of site licences under the Petroleum Products Amendment Act, confirming that transitional site licences held by lessees are assets with commercial value but are strictly limited by statute. It affirms a restrained approach to finding casus omissus in regulatory schemes and underscores that not every statutory dispute raises a constitutional issue warranting the Constitutional Court’s intervention.