The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) has put its planned anti-toll protest action for Monday on hold, according to a report on Thursday.
“We are engaging the leadership of the ANC today (Thursday),” Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi told SABC radio news.
“We are quite determined to convince them it will make no political sense at this stage to proceed with such an unpopular policy.”
Vavi warned it would have “serious repercussions at a political level”.
He called on members of the public to refrain from buying e-tags.
“We're urging the public, make this thing unworkable,” said Vavi.
He said Cosatu decided to put the planned protest for Monday on hold, pending the outcome of its meeting with the ANC on Thursday, and pending a court ruling in Pretoria on the matter.
“We are quite confident that the ruling will be in our favour.”
Also, Vavi said Monday fell between a long weekend and a holiday on Tuesday, which meant that many people had taken the day off.
“On a logistical level, it's not a good day (to stage protest action) between two holidays.”
Deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin told SABC radio that it was too late to stop the implementation of the tolls in Gauteng, scheduled to kick in on Monday.
He acknowledged that with the benefit of hindsight, the project was not a good idea.
“If we could rewind the clock, we would not have recommended this specific project,” said Cronin.
“The problem is, of course, we have now spent R20 billion on the project and the question is, how do we pay for this?
“One way or another, the public is going to have to pay for it.” - Sapa