Pretoria - Metro Police will take legal action against the organisers of Wednesday’s protest motorcade by members of the Coal Transportation Forum, who drove their trucks into Pretoria in convoys and at low speeds, bringing traffic to a standstill.
Metro Police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba said the city would consider legal action against the forum after investigations into the mayhem had been completed.
“Initially, they wanted to drive their trucks to the Union Buildings, but we told them that would not work because of the impact it would have on traffic,” he said.
Mahamba said the department was caught unaware by the number of trucks that blocked the roads in the morning.
“As a result we will be consulting our legal team to see what action we can take against the organisation.
"We managed to clear the routes mostly affected, and the trucks moved to Marabastad.
“We will gather facts regarding any wrongdoing and take it from there.
"Permission was granted to the organisation, but we did not expect what transpired,” Mahamba said.
The trouble started early in the morning as the truckers took to the freeways leading into the city, causing massive traffic jams as they slowly rolled an estimated 650 coal tipper trucks into the capital.
The forum had brought its protest to the Union Buildings after South Africa’s renewable power programme was given the nod by President Jacob Zuma.
Major routes that were blocked leading into Pretoria included the N1, N4 East, the N14, N12 and the R21.
Motorists and commuters spent hours sitting in traffic as the trucks inched into Pretoria, in a process that affected access roads into the capital.
The truckers brought with them a memorandum against the government’s signing of the Independent Power Producer programme.
The truckers handed over a memorandum to Tshekiso Sebati, director of public liaison in the Presidency, who said an acknowledgement letter would be sent to the forum within seven days.
Motorists were also caught off-guard by the big trucks cruising into the capital city ahead of the march.
Coal Transportation Forum spokesperson Mary Phadi said they were not guilty of any wrongdoing and did not coerce motorists or the public with their actions which led to the chaos. Phadi said the situation was blown out of proportion, and stated an application was submitted to notify authorities about the protest.
“We made an application and were given permission, and we are expecting the security cluster to communicate because as an organisation, our task was to make sure that the trucks got here on time without incidents,” she said.
“We are against the signing of the Independent Power Producer Programme,” said Phadi.
“All the mines that are producing coal are going to be affected and the power stations will be forced to shut down.
“We are saying that the programme should not be something that will take us out of business.
"Look at the way the US introduced it and today they are bringing back the mines because it did not work for them,” Phadi said.
A move to introduce the programme would be ill-advised, she said.
“From the State of the Nation Address, the president said he is instructing Eskom to sign it while Minister of Finance (Pravin Gordhan) said in his speech that they would allocate R200billion to procure independent power producers.
"That tells us that it’s going to be a process that should have started on Tuesday,” she said.
Zuma’s instruction left coal transport drivers fuming, and they claimed the signing of renewable energy contracts would lead to 30000 job losses in the coal industry.
Coal is used to generate a huge proportion of power in South Africa.
During his speech on February 10, Zuma said state-owned utility Eskom would sign a new power purchase agreement for renewable energy.
This came after producers of solar and wind power put pressure on the utility to sign the deals.
Meanwhile, Thulani Sibanyoni, a truck driver from Ermelo who joined the protest, said the government’s decision to give power to independent producers would have dire consequences on them and their families.
The father of seven said: “We are going to be in trouble, because we are going to lose our jobs. I have children I have to take care of. How am I going to pay for my eldest child’s tertiary education if I lose my job? It means she won’t be able to continue with her education.”
Eskom’s acting chief executive Matshela Koko was quoted in the media as saying the utility would not be renewing the contracts of coal transporters supplying coal to Eskom. The power utility said it had signed a coal agreement with the truck drivers that would expire in May 2018, but that this would not be renewed.
The utility said the trucks only supplied a portion of its coal, most of which was transported to its power plants from mines, by conveyer belts and rail.
How to organise a legal protest
The convener fills in the notice form and gives it to the local authority and take part in the negotiations.
The notice is a form containing the details of the gathering, the details of the convener, and, when it applies, the details of the organisation. This signed and completed document is handed to the local authority to inform it about the gathering.
The notice needs to be submitted at least seven days before the protest.
A meeting is held, attended by the convener or the deputy convener, the responsible officer, and a representative of the police or any other officer concerned. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss any possible changes to the gathering as it is planned and described in the notice. The responsible officer or the police representative may want another route to be followed than the one in the notice for security or other reasons.
If an agreement is reached, the gathering may proceed in accordance with the notice as it has been changed. If no agreement is reached, the responsible officer may impose on the convener any reasonable changes to the conditions under which the gathering was planned to proceed. If the convener is not called to a meeting within 24 hours of sending the notice, the gathering is automatically legal and approved, and can proceed without any further formalities under the conditions described in the notice.
A gathering may be prohibited if it will result in serious traffic disruption, injury or extensive damage to property.